A GOOD FIGHT.
Then a short journey to Bar le Duc. As soon as they were comfortably
settled in the new place the whole ceremony was repeated. The good
friends they had found at Verdun gave them letters of introduction to
the best people and in about three weeks they had made their calls,
played at some of the grand houses and given a concert with the same
interesting result in the way of good, sound francs. How they treasured
up the little Camilla's winnings. Every franc must be saved and they
lived as cheaply and simply as possible at all times. Every centime
would be needed to carry Camilla through the two more years at the
Conservatory.
Then to Metz and Strasburg and to the Rhine. It was to be a grand tour.
The Germans must hear Camilla play. They were true lovers of music. If
they were pleased it would be a great triumph and the concerts would be
very successful. From Strasburg they went to Manheim, then up the Rhine
to Bale in Switzerland. Then back again to Baden Baden, and to
Heidelberg.
What a glorious time she had. There were rides and walks among the
beautiful hills just as the grapes were ripe. Her spirits became more
animated and childlike and her color returned. It was like some strange
dream. Mother, too was happier, and as for father he had never been so
gay and merry since they left Nantes. How that pile of francs had grown.
From hundreds it had become thousands.
At Heidelberg she had a ride on the donkeys and visited the ruined
castle high on the hill. It seemed a kind of continual picnic. It was no
longer a weariness to practice. The weeks flew away so happily that they
hardly noticed that the Fall was near. They must return to Paris soon.
The vacation was over long ago. Still, the handsome pile of francs was
not large enough yet, and they kept on to Calsrue and Homburg. Every
where it was the same. Presents of every imaginable kind, flowers and
jewelry were showered upon her. At one place they gave her more
preserves and sugared fruits than she could eat in a month, and a German
Countess at Manheim was so charmed with the child that she took off a
beautiful pearl cross and chain and put it round Camilla's neck. It was
the cross the lady had when she was confirmed at Church and she valued
it highly on that account. Camilla kept the beautiful present for a long
time till it was lost in New York, as we shall see later in the story.
The tour was really not a very extensive one. A part of Eastern France
and a part of the Rhine country was all she saw, but it took seven long
months to get through with it. Were she to undertake the tour now it
could be done in two weeks. They had no active agent traveling ahead to
hire the halls and secure the rooms at the hotels. There were no
advertising facilities, and no telegraphs. M. Urso had to do everything
himself. The ceremonious calls upon the great families took a great deal
of time. The subscription list and the sale of tickets could not be
started till they were fairly settled in the town. Three weeks in one
city was hardly enough time to prepare for one concert and during it all
Camilla's practice could not be neglected for a single day. Her father
was always present watching and guiding her, and, in fact keeping her
steadily to her work.
To off-set all this, it cost them very little to live, and their concert
expenses were light. The rent of the halls was low, and they had very
few advertising bills to pay. This made it easy to make the tour
profitable, and when at last they returned to Paris they found they had
5,000 francs on hand, more money than they had ever dreamed about in
sleepy old Nantes. This represented Camilla's first earnings. Aunt
Caroline had received part of the money to help along the little home in
the Rue Lamartine and when they came back she stood ready to welcome
them at the top of the six flights of stairs. The cats were all there on
the red roofs, but that wolf had run away in dismay. It is thought he
did not appreciate music. Camilla was sure he did not like her style of
bowing.
The very next day after the journey was over Camilla returned to the
little room in the corner of the Conservatory and took her place by the
window that looked out into the court-yard where the school bell hung in
its tower, where she could see fat and rosy Massart tramp up and down
the floor and scold the boys in his dear, cross old fashion. That stick
flourished about as lively as ever. Her own fingers and limbs felt it
once in a while when she became careless. It was not often now. She
would be nine next Spring. She was getting to be a big girl and knew too
much to be caught napping by Massart. The "German Tour" as she proudly
called it had sharpened her wits and made her even more attentive and
careful. She took up her studies in solfeggio and harmony and settled
down into the routine of hard, persistent study with renewed vigor.
Those boys were far ahead of her. Never mind. She would catch them
presently.
When we see Madam Urso play to-day we think her steadiness of posture
and grace of playing very easy. None can count the days, months and
years of trial and labor she spent to attain such skill and grace. In
playing it may be noticed that she stands very firm and erect on her
left foot, with the right slightly advanced in front. Even so simple a
matter as this cost weeks of painful effort and many a bitter tear. They
put her right foot into a china saucer in such a way that the slightest
weight upon it would crush it. She broke several before she fully
acquired the proper position. It cost tears and china ware, at first.
Now it is as nothing.
The playing appears to be easy enough to spectators. Her fingers fly
over the strings with unerring certainty. It seems as if it would be
impossible to go wrong. We look on the strings to see if there are
finger prints, or other marks to show where the strings should be
touched. There is nothing. On the piano each key is plainly marked out.
Knowing the notes and the keys we may in time touch them with absolute
certainty. On the violin, the fingers must find the right place without
assistance. The notes must be found, as it were, in the dark. Only by
learning just how far to stretch the fingers and by the employment of
years and years of practice can any degree of skill be obtained.
In spite of all this, here was our nine year old Camilla getting ready
to compete for the prizes at the end of her second year. It was not to
be a mere concert where each pupil was to come out and play such pieces
as they liked before a mixed audience. There was a long difficult
concerto, to be learned, and each was to play the same piece before the
severe and critical jury, and before such musicians and others as chose
to attend. It was held in the theatre attached to the Conservatory.
Besides that, there were three difficult questions to answer in harmony,
and a piece of music written in a most extraordinary manner was to be
sung at first sight.
In this country we now write vocal music in two clefs, known as the
bass and treble clefs. This makes it easy to read and any singer after
having mastered them both can get along without much difficulty. Some of
the more lazy ones think it hard to sing in even one and are quite upset
if they try to sing in any, save their own. What would the poor alto who
"didn't know anything about the bass clefs" think of singing at first
sight in seven different clefs. Camilla's trial piece at the examination
in solfeggio was a song that began in one clef, went a few bars and then
jumped into another, then into another and back again, then another and
so on in a manner perfectly bewildering and distracting. She had never
seen it before and went through it without missing a note. The result
was that she carried off the first diploma, and the jury and audience
were greatly pleased.
Then they placed a large basket before her in which were hundreds of
bits of folded paper. She was to take out three, open them, read them
aloud and give a verbal answer to each. The first question was something
about the relative minor of a certain major key and its signature. That
was easy enough and she answered at once without hesitation. The next
question nearly took her breath away. It was some deep and perplexing
thing about the construction of a chord. Many a music teacher would be
puzzled to answer it. She thought some wicked person had put it in the
basket just to annoy her. Nobody could answer such a tremendously hard
question. She paused perplexed. It would not do to fail, and calling up
her sturdy will she compelled herself to think it out. In a moment a
bright gleam passed over her face and she began to answer the question
slowly. Feeling more confident, she went on explaining the matter, and
suddenly went wrong. She caught herself at once and in a flash corrected
it and gave the right answer.
This was against the rules. No pupil was allowed to correct himself. He
must have it right the first time. She was greatly frightened, and
thought she had made a failure. She was so earnest and anxious over it,
and moreover she was a girl, the first girl on the violin ever admitted
to the Conservatory, and with a smile and a word of encouragement the
jury forgave her and accepted her answer. The third question was quickly
answered and the great trial was successfully finished. This trial of
skill, or examination as we should call it, lasted several days. One day
she was examined in harmony. The singing came another day, the violin
concerto another, and the playing at sight in a string quartette on
still another. The poor girl was quite worn out and thankful that the
summer vacation came soon after. At our Conservatories and music schools
the pupils take the vacation as a time of rest and enjoyment. They say
it is too hot to work. It is quite as warm in Paris, and Camilla was as
weary as ever they could be at such a time. Still she rose with the sun,
practiced all the forenoon with her father, went to Massart's house
three times a week, and with the exception of the hours spent at the
Conservatory, her time passed exactly as if there was no vacation at
all. Work, work, work, all the time. Just enough exercise to keep her in
good health. Only a little play, now and then. Hours and hours of
practice day after day. Such was her life. A great and splendid reward
was in view. By and by she would win every thing. When her day of
success came she could rest and enjoy herself. Could she? Did she ever
rest? We shall see.