Captain Godfrey, absolute though his power over us was—­he could have ordered us all home at a moment’s notice—­turned out to be a delightful young officer, who did everything in his power to make our way smooth and pleasant, and who was certainly as good a manager as I ever had or ever expect to have.  He entered into the spirit of our tour, and it was plain to see that it would be a success from start to finish if it were within his power to make it so.  He liked to call himself my manager, and took a great delight, indeed, in the whole experience.  Well, it was a change for him, no doubt!

I had brought a piano with me, but no accompanist.  That was not an oversight; it was a matter of deliberate choice.  I had been told, before I left home, that I would have no difficulty in finding some one among the soldiers to accompany me.  And that was true, as I soon found.  In fact, as I was to learn later, I could have recruited a full orchestra among the Tommies, and I would have had in my band, too, musicians of fame and great ability, far above the average theater orchestra.  Oh, you must go to France to learn how every art and craft in Britain has done its part!

Aye, every sort of artist and artisan, men of every profession and trade, can be found in the British army.  It has taken them all, like some great melting pot, and made them soldiers.  I think, indeed, there is no calling that you could name that would not yield you a master hand from the ranks of the British army.  And I am not talking of the officers alone, but of the great mass of Tommies.  And so when I told Captain Godfrey I would be needing a good pianist to play my accompaniments, he just smiled.

“Right you are!” he said.  “We’ll turn one up for you in no time!”

He had no doubts at all, and he was right.  They found a lad called Johnson, a Yorkshireman, in a convalescent ward of one of the big hospitals.  He was recovering from an illness he had incurred in the trenches, and was not quite ready to go back to active duty.  But he was well enough to play for me, and delighted when he heard he might get the assignment.  He was nervous lest he should not please me, and feared I might ask for another man.  But when I ran over with him the songs I meant to sing I found he played the piano very well indeed, and had a knack for accompanying, too.  There are good pianists, soloists, who are not good accompanists; it takes more than just the ability to play the piano to work with a singer, and especially with a singer like me.  It is no straight ahead singing I do always, as you ken, perhaps.

But I saw at once that Johnson and I would get along fine together, so everyone was pleased, and I went on and made my preparations with him for my first concert.  That was to be in the Boulogne Casino—­ center of the gayety of the resort in the old days, but now, for a long time, turned into a base hospital.