“Do you know, my dear boy, there would not be so crowded or fashionable an audience to witness Racine’s Athalia?”
“Undoubtedly. What is the beggarly howling of an actor, compared to the roaring of the lion?”
“I cannot understand how the authorities permit this Morok to fasten his panther with a chain to an iron ring in the corner of the stage. If the chain were to break?”
“Talking of broken chains—there’s little Mme. de Blinville, who is no tigress. Do you see her in the second tier, opposite?”
“It becomes her very well to have broken, as you say, the marriage chain; she looks very well this season.”
“Oh! there is the beautiful Duchess de Saint-Prix; all the world is here to-night—I don’t speak of ourselves.”
“It is a regular opera night—what a festive scene!”
“Well, after all, people do well to amuse themselves, perhaps it will not be for long.”
“Why so?”
“Suppose the cholera were to come to Paris?”