The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-05-18
CHAPTER FIFTY.ONE

CHAPTER FIFTY.ONE
Once Lily Lou would have fled in
dismay from the prima donna's
lurid tales, and Elizabethan English.
but she listened now, smiling a lit
She had come to ask for q loan.
but it was never asked for. Ma
dame Mailman said, "You must
come with me on my concert tour,
I 60 Is far as St. Louis. Wonder
full bookings. Really quite the best
publicity and advance sales !.
You will accompany me. Seine is
the violinist-"
T-accompany you!! But you
they-wouldn't be satisfied"
"Not q word. It is settled. Nv
mind is made up-just like that"
It was arranged. Afterward Lily
Lou found out that it was the trick
she had discovered last summer, Of
filing in the ''hole" in Nahlman's
voice-that empty space in the mid
die register.
You are certainly not q crest
pianist" Tony told her, "but you
are an accurate and an intelligent
one, with more sympathy than 4
bigger artist would have. So do not
thank her too much. You serve her
purpose"
"And she serves mine. Tony, I
don't know what I'd have done il
this hadn't come along"
'<You would not starve," he told
her easily.
"I'm going on concert tour with
Mailman for fourteen weeks" she
told Gwin. I'm sorry-you1l have
to get another accompanist."
rs that the only reason you are
sorry?"
Lily Lou looked down 1T her feet.
She knew, 50 well, what Gwin was
thinking. 'T1l be sorry to lose my
lessons with you. I know how much
owe you, how much you've taught
me-"
There was no further opportunity
to talk then, another pupil came in.
When, later, she prepared to 60,
he said, "After the concert tour,
Lily Lou, I'll help you if you ever
need coaching on a role. But there
is nothing more I can teach you
about singing. Things might have
been different. But since you're 60
ing to Mailman"
He seemed, for the moment, IL
most IS old as his prematurely
gray hair. An old, defeated man.
Could he have cared for her, really !?
She didn't know would never
know. They shook hands.
Goodbye, Dwight"
Goodbye, Lily Lou"
It wasn't really goodbye. They
would meet again in the morning.
But it was q farewell, for all that.
It was the last sign Of affection OF
feeling he was ever to show for
her.
When, ten days later, she left for
Philadelphia with Madame Nahl-
man, after establishing the baby
and Mrs. Jensen's aunt, Mrs. Mil
strom, with the bubchen in Max
ines fiat, she was beginning an
other era.
It took Lily Lou just five years
to reach her goal, the Metropolitan.
Five years from the time she came
to New York, . frightened, but de-
termined girl.
After the contract trip with Ma
dame Mailman it was comparatively
easy sailing. There was the matter
Of "the hole" in Nahlman's voice.
To cover it, Lily Lou was allowed
to join in two numbers, singing
high, dute-like obbhgato to one,
lower, Grooming melody to the other.
When she got too much applause
Mailman would fly into , tantrum,
threaten to get . more competent
accompanist, and there would be
uncomfortable hours. But few audi
ences noticed Lily Lou particularly.
They had come to hear Mailman,
and old and tired as she was, with
"hole" in her middle register. she
gave them the fire and thrill Of
an enthusiasm that would never
die. Beside the glowing, exuberant
personality Of the aging prima
donna, the accompanist was just a
pretty, promising young girl.
Well--Lily Lou didn't care. Not
while she was earning two hundred
and expenses every week and the
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