JOSEPHINE, THE SONGSTRESS
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the chattering of a child, full of kindly feelings in principle, but
out of reach.
But Josephine will not give up. For instance, she claimed
recently to have hurt her foot at work, which made it difficult for
her to stand as she sang; since she could only sing while standing,
she would now have to shorten her songs. But no one believed
that she had really been hurt, in spite of the way she limped and
had herself supported by her followers. Granted even the special
sensitivity of her little body, we are nevertheless a people of
workers, and Josephine belongs to this people, and if we were all
to limp every time we scraped off some skin, the whole population
would never stop limping.
It
made no difference that she had
herself led around like a cripple and showed herself much more
often than usual in this pitiful condition, the people went on listen–
ing to her singing as gratefully and delightedly as ever, and no
great fuss was made about the shortened performances.
As she could not go on limping forever, she invented some–
thing new; she pretended to be tired or in bad humor or to feel
faint. And then, in addition to a concert, we had a play. We
would see Josephine surrounded by her followers, who would be
begging and pleading with her to sing. It would seem that she
wanted to sing very much, but was unable to. Then they would
comfort and coax her and carry her almost bodily to the place
fixed upon in advance, where she was to sing. She would give in
ally with unimaginable tears, but as she would get ready to sing
ith what was ostensibly a supreme effort, feebly, her arms not
utstretched as usual, but hanging limply at her sides so that you
ot the impression that they were perhaps a little too short-just
s she was about to sing, it would suddenly come to nothing again;
st there would be a sudden, helpless jerk of her head, and then
e would collapse before our eyes. But after that, to be sure, she
ould quickly pick herself up and begin singing-not much dif–
erently, I think, than before. Perhaps if you had an ear for the
est nuances, you might have detected a note of agitation that
as slightly out of the ordinary, but which only heightened the
ff
ect. And at the end she would be even less tired than before;
e would leave with a firm step-if her tripping little walk can
called that-refusing all assistance from her claque, and meas-
