The Glimpse Author:Arnold Bennett Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III A FINAL PERFECTION THE young woman was an American, advertised as a pupil of Jean de Reszke. She seemed to be a highly finished article, as she... more » stood there, expectantly smiling, with her back to the piano and her arms thrust somewhat behind, widely aslant, so that the curved fingers rested on the piano. Such a pose must have been carefully thought out and long practiced, to the least detail. Her frock and hat, her gloves, the line of her neck chain, had all been the subject of deep consideration. She had an agreeable platform voice, mezzo-soprano, which had been admirably trained and developed, and a perfect French accent. My mind, as I listened to her, dwelt on the ten thousand hours during which her voice must have .run up and down on scales, in warm months and in cold months, always the same, exasperating the neighbor in the flat above or the flat below: and on the weariness of the piano and of the accompanist, and on the recurrent excitationof lesson days; and on the intrigues and schemes for success; and on the visits to dressmakers and modistes and coiffeurs, and the continual pathetic effort to stretch money a little further than money will in fact stretch; and again on the schemes, and again the schemes; and the absurd, wild hopes; and the days of discouragement. In that moment she was at fruition. It was to be able to stand up graceful and elegant there, and pour pretty sounds from the vase of her body, that she had toiled upon herself, and others had toiled upon her, for a decade and perhaps more. Five minutes, and she had done! Interminable cultivation, endless effort for five minutes of formal display! A few vibrations, a glance, a smile, a gesture; and she had done all that she could do. Once a week, once a month, possibly less often, she lived for f...« less