The Petrograd season of that year was rendered particularly brilliant by the appearance at the Imperial Opera of the incomparable Adelina Patti. I heard her as Rosina in the Barber of Seville, a part in which I think no other singer has quite approached her yet. Not only was her singing absolutely perfect, but she also acted bewitchingly. When some years later, at a State Concert at Buckingham Palace, I had the great pleasure of singing with her, her voice seemed to have lost nothing of its rare beauty and charm, her vocal art to be still as perfect as human achievement can ever hope to be ; and when, later still, her annual concert at the Royal Albert Hall formed for many years a regular feature of each succeeding season, it was in no spirit of raillery, but with a sincere sense of admiration for her wonderful capacity to remain young that I wrote on a picture post-card representing the Royal Albert Hall—

Look at this building tall and weighty:

Here Patti’ll sing when she is eighty.