Let us
live for to-day."
The professor gently stroked his daughter's velvet cheek. "Go, my
darling, go and return triumphant."
In the reception-room Esperance and Madame Darbois went to the same
bench, where they had sat upon their former visit. Some fifty people
were assembled.
The same official came to speak to them, and, consulting the list
which he was holding ostentatiously, "There are still five pupils
before you, Mademoiselle, two boys and three young ladies. Whom have
you chosen to give you your cues?"
Esperance looked at him with amazement. "I don't understand," she
said, Madame Darbois was perturbed.
"But," answered the man, "you must have an '_Armande_' for _Les Femmes
Savantes_, an '_Agememnon_' and a '_Clytemnestra_' for _Iphygenia_."
"But we did not know that," stammered Madame Darbois.
The official smiled and assumed still more importance. "Wait just a
moment, ladies." Soon he returned, leading a tall, young girl with a
dignified bearing, and a young man of evident refinement. "Here is Mlle.
Hardouin, who is willing to give you the cues for '_Armande_' and
'_Clytemnestra_,' and M. Jean Perliez, who will do the '_Agememnon_.'
Only, I believe," he added, "you will have to rehearse with them. I
will take all four of you into my little office where no one can
disturb you."
Mlle. Hardouin was a beautiful, modest young girl of eighteen, with
charming manners. She was an orphan and lived with a sister ten years
older, who had been a mother to her.
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