A Mummer's Tale

ctress's dressing

oot to Madame Michon, the dresser, who was fitting on a pair of little black slippers with red heels. Dr. Trublet, the physician attached to the theatr

y dear?" he i

s; and, all of a sudden, an agonizing pain, as i

you must laugh or cry for no appa

n this life one has so many re

ct to attacks

see an imaginary cat, under the chairs o

"because that's a bad omen. To see a cat is a sign that

ams that I see a cat! It

very evening. He was fond of the actresses, delighted in chatting with them, gave them good advice, and lis

ear child, and you'll see no more

ss's stays. The doctor, suddenly gloo

l very well for Fagette, who has no shoulders and no hips; she's simply straight up and down. Michon, you can pull a little tighter still. I know you are no lover of waists,

at they should associate with smallness of the waist an idea of grace and beauty, not realizing that their beauty resided wholly in those modulations through which the

reasts in its ruin, you flatten your lower ribs, and you plough a horrible furrow above the navel. The negresses, who file their teeth down to a point, and split their lips, in order to insert a wooden disc, disfigure themselves in a less barbarous fashion. For, after all, some

eformities of the bones and muscles caused by the wearing of stay

scribed by the doctor reminded her of some comrade of the boards, stamping itself on her mind like a caricature. Knowing that she herself had a good figure, she delighted in her own young body as she pictured to herself all these indignities of t

afraid!"

n, who never wore stays, had far w

Western civilizations because of their con

e various customs of humanity. When at a ripe age, he returned to his own country, he rarely strayed from his ancient Rue de Seine, thoroughly enjoying his life, save that it depresse

a tap at

laimed a woman's vo

pink petticoat, begged th

to seed, although she had long contrived to hold it together on the boa

evertheless, I saw you the day before yesterday, and I assure you that in the second of L

-as is always the case when one has

Nanteuil's silence, murmured

hes, genuinely ind

act. When I sit on the creature's knees, it makes me feel as if--You don't know all the horrors that she whispers into my ear while we are on the

h enthusiasm, "you have just said

uired Nante

m you cherish neither hatred nor anger. But there are things which disgust you; you have a fastidious taste, and it is profoundly true that morals are a matter of taste. My child, I could wish that the Academy of Moral Science t

you talk

e to any human thought or action, once the inevitable na

of a Perrin, do you? You, a member of the L

r heaved

moment's attention; I am going t

sexes were combined. These three kinds of human beings possessed four arms, four legs, and two faces. They were robust and rotated rapidly on their own axes, just

icoat hang too low on th

from the other half, just as one divides a sole into two portions. These halves are ever seeking their other halves. The love which we experience for one another is nothing but an invisible force impelling us to reunite our two halves in order to re-establish ourselves in our pristine perfection

tory, doctor?" inquired Nanteui

ented a word of it. On the contrary, he

"For I must tell you that the person who d

d," remark

ctress, but Madame Doulce, who was prudent and occasiona

stiff. That is the secret of the ingénue. Beware of your charming natural suppleness. Young girls in a 'stock' piece ought to be just a trifle doll-like. It

the play. Besides, I am not particularly in love with Marivaux--What are you lau

sure

gets on my nerves. I should prefer a part with more meat in it, something o

d in spite of ourselves. I could give you many examples. I myself, in La Vivandière d'Austerlitz, staggered the house by my gaiety of tone, when I had just been

inquired Nanteuil, who wanted to play the woman in love,

. "Comedy is an imitative art; and you imitate a

ue or a Dorine, a Célimène or a Madame Pernelle. On the stage, some women are always twenty, others are always thirty, other

ct me to play all ingénues with the same pleasure. There is one part, for

of Agnès, the doctor murmured de

s du mal pour en

ike!" exclaimed Nanteuil. "I h

illusions and nourished no exaggerated hopes. He loved peace, books and women. Nanteuil had every reason

ust say, though, that when I asked him I didn't go the right way about it. While she knows how to tackle him, if you like

d and worn out, and no longer obtained any engagements. She gave advice to beginners, wrote their le

a black velvet ribbon round her neck: "You say that my fits

proceeded from the stomach, and that two or three hours after meals she experienc

thinking, for she wa

whether, considering that you know just what there is in the human body, and that you have seen all the things we have inside us, i

shions Trublet, wafting a

e skin of a pretty woman. That is what I was telling myself just now, while contemplating

at him like that of

, to talk nonsense when anyone

ddy Rousseau, who every day at eleven o'clock used to lunch at the end of the table on which the corpse was lying. He ate his lunch because he was hungry. Nothing prevents people who are hungry from

t, you know. And there you are seated like a Turk and you haven't written out my pre

remely fashionable, pushed it open, and, having taken a couple of ste

stretched out her hand, which he kiss

inquired, without wasting any par

r, because of his snub-nose and his subt

s question. We advise her to refer, for the answer, to the little girl who ate too much jam. Her mother said to her

ly you are, docto

is the capacity for happiness. It is the sovereign c

Ligny. "But I grant you that it is better to be silly as eve

is certain. It is that stupidity often prevents one from doing stupid things. I have noticed that many a time. Whether you take men

e who cannot d

anything from you,

rrible slavery it is! Every woman who c

ulders, which still retained som

hat an idea! In your days, did actresses control their-how di

y Doulce retired with dignity and prudence. Once in

play Angélique as a 'bud

r nerves on edge

tells one of them six days out of seven. Everybody knows that she reduced her husband, the musician, to such a state of exhaustion that one night he tumbled into his cornet. As for her lovers, magnificent

ands, palms outward, towards N

e loves what one can, as one can, and with what one has. She has become chaste and pious at the fitting

dle for me, to heat my rouge. I must do my lips again. Certainly, she is q

not?" asked

on better than yo

the mournful voice of the call-

ain-raise

Madame Michon was on her knees arranging the three Watteau pleats of the pink dress, and, wit

in being old, men cannot

took a cigaret

oward the lighted candl

s, ruddy in the candlelight, drawing in and puffing out the smoke. She felt a slight warmth in her ea

ow, in a cab, at the corn

was heard in the corridor. The actors in the curt

ss me your

uninteresting,

nd, pass

eld it like a scr

s my eyes ache,

er blue-tinted eyelids, her eyelashes smeared with a black paste, her grease-painted cheeks, her lips tinted red in the shape

a swaggering gait. His melancholy eyes were deeply sunken above a nose like a crow's beak; his mouth was set in a pe

nquired Dr. Trublet, who was fond of actors, preferred

d Nanteuil "This isn't a d

Chevalier, "I warn you, there's a pack of idiots

ing in without knocking,"

ad left the door open; whereupon Nanteuil, turn

comes into a room, one closes the door on other p

self in a white

mmoned the play

t with her fingers, dug her nail into the spot, close to the veins, w