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 the selection as far away as the 86th Street Elevated station, but he smiled.

“Galli-Curci,” he said, “once told me that she had comparatively little sympathy from her parents when she started singing. Miss Dorothy has a very good voice— really.”

“Oh, do you really think so!”

Tommy nodded.

“Of course, training will do wonders for it.”

“That’s what I always tell Dorothy. That’s why I think she ought to start studying as soon as possible.”

“By all means,” Tommy murmured.

“We were planning to have her start with Madame Schneider.”

Dorothy pouted. Madame Schneider was neither fashionable nor inspiring.

“I want to study with Michel Soedlich,” she interrupted. “Isn’t he a big teacher?”

“Very big,” agreed Tommy.

“But I do believe,” said Mrs. Loamford, “that it would be better for Dorothy to start with a woman teacher.”

“I don’t see why,” Dorothy objected.

“Must we go over all that again?" demanded her mother. "Mind you, Mr. Borge, I don't pretend to know anything about this Mr. Soedlich. But, after all one hears about the goings on at studios, all I can say is, one can’t be too careful!”

“There’s a great deal in that, as the monkey said,” agreed Tommy.

“As the monkey said?” asked Mrs. Loamford.

“It’s a new way of saying ‘I agree,” Tommy explained. “Soedlich is a corking musician. He’d probably be one of our greatest men if he had any stability.”

Mrs. Loamford turned triumphantly to her daughter.