"But we want her to act. Can she?"
"Act!" said the amiable husband. "She can act like the devil!"
By the time we had returned to the salon the Prince had not only found a good word for a charade, but had decided in his resourceful mind all minor details. He thought it would amuse the Prince Imperial to join us, and he asked permission of the Prince's gouverneur to allow him to do so. The permission was readily given.
Prince Metternich begged Vicomte Walsh to obtain the Empress's gracious consent to honor the performance with her presence. She was very pleased at the idea of seeing her son's début as an actor, and promised to come, and even said she would have the tea, usually served in her salon, brought to the little theater.
Prince Metternich gave us a sketch of what he wanted us to do, and gave us general instructions as to our costumes, and bade us meet again in an hour. He would see to everything else: light, heat, scenery, powder, paint, etc., all the accessories, would be ready for us. We ladies were to be pierrettes and dancers of Louis-Quinze period; the gentlemen were to represent the talons rouges, and to have red cloth pasted on the heels of their low shoes. We could paint our faces and powder our hair after our own ideas. "But, ladies, above all, do not be late," were the parting words of the Prince.
We followed his instructions as well as we could, and reappeared in the theater to hear the now fully matured plans of our impresario.
The Empress was seated before we were ready, Prince Metternich was so long painting the Prince Imperial. We could hear her saying, "Allons! Allons!" clapping her hands in her eagerness for us to commence.
The word was PANTALON.
The first syllable, PAN, was represented by the Prince Imperial as a statue of Pan.
His body was visible to the waist above a pedestal. Over his flesh-colored undershirt he wore a wreath of green leaves across his shoulders, and his head was also covered with a wreath. He held the traditional flute before his mouth. No one could have recognized the delicate features of the Prince Imperial, as Prince Metternich had painted his lips very large and very red, and had added a fantastic mustache. His eyebrows (black as ink) had an upward tilt, in true Mephistophelian style.