A choice public was always present. Among
them were:
The composers Reber and Gounod;
Doctor Dailly, Madame de Meyendorf--a great Russian lady, the friend of
art;
The Princess de Chimay and the Princess Czartoriska, who glided modestly
in and took the humblest place;
Madame Blanchecotte, whose charming verses were crowned by the Academy;
Countess d'Haussonville, a familiar name;
M. Joly de Bammeville, one of the exhibitors at the Exhibition of
Retrospective Arts, in 1878;
Doriot, the sculptor; Madame de Lamartine, Madame Laure de Leomenil, a
well-known painter; Madame de Blocqueville, daughter of Marshal Davout,
and author of his biography; a throng of artists, men of letters and
scientists; certain original figures of the period.
On one occasion we were joined by a man of some celebrity--the
chiromancist Desbarolles. Delsarte had the courtesy to base his theory
lesson upon the latter's system; he pointed out its points of relation
with the sum total of the constitution of the human being. It was a
lesson full of spirit and piquant allusions; one of those charming
impromptus in which Delsarte never failed.
From time to time certain persons in clerical robes appeared in the
audience; the austerity of their habit contrasting somewhat strangely
with the attire of the elegant women, men of fashion and young actors in
their apprenticeship around them; but matters always settled themselves.
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