As with very few exceptions all the violinists in Costa's orchestra were past or present pupils of Sainton, an engagement for the Birmingham Festival of 1864, did not surprise me. Rehearsing on the floor of St. James's Hall, I listened for the first time to the wonderful voice of a pretty, black-haired, lemon-complexioned girl of twenty-one, who, after singing one of the solos in Costa's newly-written Naaman, was publicly kissed by the usually imperturbable composer. Adeline Patti and I did not meet until we were of a much more mature age.