with the driver and her adopted parents.  She was sometimes a little afraid when leaving the opera late at night; but there was a pleasant feeling of protection in the idea that a friend of her father’s was in Rome, who knew better than the Signor how to keep out of quarrels.  That recollection also operated as an additional stimulus to excellence in her art.  This friend had expressed himself very highly gratified by her successful debut, and that consideration considerably increased her anxiety to sustain herself at the height she had attained.  In some respects that was impossible; for the thrilling circumstances of the first evening could not again recur to set her soul on fire.  Critics generally said she never equalled her first acting; though some maintained that what she had lost in power she had gained in a more accurate conception of the character.  Her voice was an unfailing source of wonder and delight.  They were never weary of listening to that volume of sound, so full and clear, so flexible in its modulations, so expressive in its intonations.

As the completion of her engagement drew near, the manager was eager for its renewal; and finding that she hesitated, he became more and more liberal in his offers.  Things were in this state, when Mr. King called upon Madame one day while Rosa was absent at rehearsal.  “She is preparing a new aria for her last evening, when they will be sure to encore the poor child to death,” said Madame.  “It is very flattering, but very tiresome; and to my French ears their ‘Bis!  Bis!’ sounds too much like a hiss.”

“Will she renew her engagement, think you?” inquired Mr. King.

“I don’t know certainly,” replied Madame.  “The manager makes very liberal offers; but she hesitates.  She seldom alludes to Mr. Fitzgerald, but I can see that his presence is irksome to her; and then his sudden irruption into her room, as told by Giovanna, has given rise to some green-room gossip.  The tenor is rather too assiduous in his attentions, you know; and the seconda donna is her enemy, because she has superseded her in his affections.  These things make her wish to leave Rome; but I tell her she will have to encounter very much the same anywhere.”

“Madame,” said the young man, “you stand in the place of a mother to Miss Royal; and as such, I have a favor to ask of you.  Will you, without mentioning the subject to her, enable me to have a private interview with her to-morrow morning?”

“You are aware that it is contrary to her established rule to see any gentleman, except in the presence of myself or Papa Balbino.  But you have manifested so much delicacy, as well as friendliness, that we all feel the utmost confidence in you.”  She smiled significantly as she added:  “If I slip out of the room, as it were by accident, I don’t believe I shall find it very difficult to make my peace with her.”

Alfred King looked forward to the next morning with impatience; yet when he found himself, for the first time, alone with Rosabella, he felt painfully embarrassed.  She glanced at the fresh rose he wore, but could not summon courage to ask whether roses were his favorite flowers.  He broke the momentary silence by saying:  “Your performances here have been a source of such inexpressible delight to me, Miss Royal, that it pains me to think of such a thing as a last evening.”