But my agent urged me so strongly to show the manager what my dances were like, especially as compared with those of my imitator, that I decided to do so.
I put on my robes, one after the other, and began to dance. The orchestra was composed of a single violin, and for illumination I had only the footlights.
When I had finished the manager made me come into his private office and proposed to engage me then and there. I was to make my appearance as soon as the other dancer had ended her engagement.
“No,” I declared. “If I come to you this woman will have to go.”
“But,” he said, “I have engaged her. She cannot leave until the end of her agreement.”
“You have only to pay her for her performances and she will go.”
He objected then that lithographs, newspaper advertisements and other things had been prepared for her, and that, if she stopped dancing, the public might protest.
“Very well. In that case I will dance in her place, under her name, with her music, until you have arranged everything for my debut.”
The next day he paid my imitator and she left the theatre.
That same evening I took her place and I was obliged to repeat her dance four or five times.