Peter Ibbetson - Original Edition

He was gifted with a magnificent, a phenomenal voice-a barytone and tenor rolled into one; a marvel of richness, sweetness, flexibility, and power-and had intended to sing at the opera; indeed, he had studied for three years at the Paris Conservatoire to that end; and there he had carried all before him, and given rise to the highest hopes. But his family, who were Catholics of the blackest and Legitimists of the whitest dye-and as poor as church rats had objected to such a godless and derogatory career; so the world lost a great singer, and the great singer a mine of wealth and fame.