A Borrowed Mother.
The danseuse always has a mother; if the fates cut the thread of the days of her natural parent, she will borrow, hire, or buy a new one. It is an article of primary necessity. The mother holds her daughter’s shawl in the wings, watches her dance, covers her shoulders when her pas is over, and offers her a little bottle of cold beef tea to quench her thirst and keep up her strength. Take for a sample mother Mme. N., who begins her day as a fruit seller at 6 o’clock in the morning. She mounts into her little cart and trots off to the Central Market, where she lays in her provision of cabbages, turnips, carrots, and salads. Then, on summer evenings, about 8 o’clock, a tall lackey enters her shop, and Mme. N., dressed in her Sunday best, gets into Mons. de P’s victoria and takes a ride in the Bois de Boulogne with her daughter. Mme. N. is a living encyclopædia, a gazette of the market and of the court.
