182.—PROVING IDENTITY.
Here is a story that has been told of more than one prima donna, but at present is related of Sigrid Arnoldson. If it is true, this lady has proved the statement that a great intellectual gift proves an easy passport to anything.
When she was in Rome, she went one day to the poste restante to call for a registered letter. She was asked for her passport to establish her identity, but she had left it at her hotel. Her reiterated assurance that she was indeed Sigrid Arnoldson failed to satisfy the officials, until at last the happy thought occurred to her to sing to them. "Assai, assai!" they exclaimed when the song was finished; "here is your letter, for no one but Sigrid Arnoldson can sing like that."