my friends and the public as a teacher of singing and as a

concert-vocalist. She has lived for fifteen years at the court of

Roumania, and she brought with her to America an autograph letter in

which her Majesty the Queen of Roumania cordially certified her to me

as being an accomplished and gifted singer and teacher of singing, and

expressed a warm hope that her professional venture among us would meet

with success; through absence in Europe I have had no opportunity

to test the validity of the Queen's judgment in the matter, but that

judgment is the utterance of an entirely competent authority--the best

that occupies a throne, and as good as any that sits elsewhere, as the

musical world well knows--and therefore back it without hesitation, and

endorse it with confidence.

I will explain that the reason her Majesty tried to do her friend a

friendly office through me instead of through someone else was, not that

I was particularly the right or best person for the office, but because

I was not a stranger. It is true that I am a stranger to some of the

monarchs--mainly through their neglect of their opportunities--but

such is not the case in the present instance. The latter fact is a high

compliment to me, and perhaps I ought to conceal it. Some people would.

MARK TWAIN.

1073

The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete