I gave her some of my
bountiful supply of Eau de Cologne.
IV.
The tiring night-journey, with its full four hours' wait at Liege, was
all pure enjoyment to me, and in a mood of mild ecstasy, at last, at
half-past ten on the morning of November 11th 1866, I made my entry into
Paris, and was received cordially by the proprietors of a modest but
clean little hotel which is still standing, No. 20 Rue Notre Dame des
Victoires, by the proprietors, two simple Lorrainers, Francois and
Mueller, to whom Gabriel Sibbern, who was staying there, had announced my
arrival. The same morning Sibbern guided my first steps to one of
Pasdeloup's great classical popular concerts.
In the evening, in spite of my fatigue after travelling all night, I
went to the Theatre Francais for the first time, and there, lost in
admiration of the masterly ensemble and the natural yet passionate
acting, with which I had hitherto seen nothing to compare, I saw
Girardin's _Le supplice d'une femme_, and Beaumarchais' _Le
mariage de Figaro_, in one evening making the acquaintance of such
stars as Regnier, Madame Favart, Coquelin and the Sisters Brohan.
Regnier especially, in his simple dignity, was an unforgettable figure,
being surrounded, moreover, in my eyes by the glory which the well-known
little poem of Alfred de Musset, written to comfort the father's heart,
had shed upon him.
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