One day in a funeral procession Victorien Sardou heard one of the Lionnets say to one of his neighbors, with a broken-hearted air, while giving the sad news about a friend's health, "Well, it will be his turn soon."
These words aroused Sardou's attention, and he exclaimed, pointing to the brothers,
"They not only go to all the burials; they announce them!"
CHAPTER XXVIII
DEAR EMOTIONS
During the summer of 1902 I left Paris and went to my home in Égreville. Among the books and pamphlets I took with me was Rome Vaincue by Alexandre Parodi. That magnificent tragedy had had a never to be forgotten success when it was played on the stage of the Comédie-Française in 1876.
Sarah Bernhardt and Mounet-Sully, then in their youth, were the protagonists in the two most impressive acts of the work; Sarah Bernhardt incarnated the blind grandmother, Posthumia, and Mounet-Sully interpreted the Gallic slave Vestapor.
Sarah in all the flower of her radiant beauty had demanded the rôle of the old woman, so true is it that the real artiste does not think of herself, but knows when it is necessary to abstract from self, to sacrifice her charms, her grace and the light of her allurements to the higher exigencies of art.
The same remark could be applied at the Opéra thirty years later.
I remember those tall bay windows through which the sunshine came into my great room at Égreville.
After dinner I read the engaging brochure, Rome Vaincue, until the last beams of daylight. I could not get away from it I became so enthusiastic. My reading was stopped only by