JOSEPHINE, THE SONGSTRESS
215
course, often happens-some one called her attention to the gen·
eral popular squeaking. I have never seen such a haughty, inso·
lent smile as the one that appeared on her face; to all outward
appearances J oseph,ine is
refinem~nt
itself, strikingly refined even
among a people such as ours, which is rich in feminine personal–
ities of this sort, yet at that moment she actually seemed vulgar.
But with her great sensitivity, she herself must have realized this
immediately, for she managed to get herself under control. This
in any event is her way of repudiating every connection between
her art and squeaking. For those of the opposite opinion she has
nothing but contempt, and most likely, unconfessed hatred. This
is no ordinary vanity, for the opposition, to which I myself half
belong, certainly admires her no less than does the crowd, but
Josephine wants not only to be admired, but to be admired in
exactly the way she decides. Admiration alone is of no importance
to her. And when you sit in front of her
yo~
begin to understand
this; opposition can
on~y
be maintained at a distance : sitting in
front of her, you realize that what she squeaks is not ordinary
squeaking.
Since squeaking is one of our more thoughtless habits, it
might be supposed that squeaking can be heard in Josephine's
audience; we enjoy her art, and when we enjoy ourselves, we
squeak; but her audience does not squeak, it is still as a mouse.
We are as silent as t'hough participating in that peace for which we
all yearn, and of which at the very least we are deprived by our
own squeaking. Is it her singing .itself that enraptures us, or is it
rather the solemn stillness surrounding that weak little voice?
Once it happened that while Josephine· was singing, some insane
little thing in the audience began to squeak too in all inno·
cence. Now it was altogether the same kind of squeaking that we
heard from Josephine: a squeaking, still hesitant for all its prac–
tice, came from out there in front, and from back in the audience
there came a self-oblivious childish little squeaking. It would have
been impossible to point out the difference, yet we immediately
hissed and whistled the disturber down, which was quite unneces–
sary, as even without that she would have stolen away in fel!;r and
shame, while Josephine swelled her triumphal squeak and spread–
ing her arms wide and lifting her head as high as she could, grew
quite beside herself.
