CHAPTER XVII.

Lord Byron remarked that he woke one morning and found himself famous; and Sylvia might with truth have said the same. Sylvia’s was a genuine success. The musical critics were, for once, unanimous in praising her voice and the way she managed it and the dramatic critics declared that she would in time be as fine an actress as she was a singer. Vienna raved about her—about her beauty, her youth, and her romantic history; and all sorts of absurd rumors went the round of the newspapers. Some hinted that she was the da…