"People repeat
such things one after the other; there is a fashion in it. I have
always found that your stage beauty is as often as not no beauty, at
all off it; and then you know stage work and the foot-lights are
terribly quick users-up of beauty. And La Lalli is not at the
beginning of her career. But what have we to do with all that! che
diavolo! She is a great singer; she comes here to delight our ears,
not our eyes!"
"But time and work make havoc with the voice as well as with the
face and figure, Signor Marchese!" said Manutoli.
"Not to the same degree, Signor Barone, and not quite so rapidly,"
replied the Marchese, with the manner of one laying down the law on
a subject of which he is an acknowledged master. "Of course a voice
which has done much work, is not the same thing as a perfectly fresh
one? A chi lo dite? though, observe, you very often gain more in
knowledge, and in perfection of art, than you lose in freshness of
organ. But with proper care, voice, though a perishable thing, is
not so rapidly and fatally so, as mere beauty of face; that is sure
to go very soon. I have not troubled myself to inquire, as you may
imagine, much about the state of La Lalli's good looks. But I have
informed myself of the condition of her voice, as it was my duty to
do. And I think that in that respect, which is the only one we need
care about, the city will find that we have not done badly.
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