CHAPTER XI
BY THE EMPEROR’S ORDER
The next day but one, the mystery was solved of the old lady who gave the ninety thousand francs to the soldiers’ orphans’ fund. It was not an old lady at all, but the young and pretty actress, Mademoiselle Fifi, who had drawn the great prize in the lottery. She had temporarily retired from the stage of the Imperial Theater, in the street of the Black Cat, but would shortly resume her place there as leading lady. So it was printed in the newspapers, and known in the salons of Paris.
There was very nearly a mob in the street of the Black Cat, so many persons were drawn by curiosity to see Fifi. Fifi, peeping from her garret window, would have dearly liked to exhibit herself, but Duvernet, for once stern, refused to let her show so much as an eyelash, except to those who bought a ticket to see her at the theater, when she was to appear in her great part of the Roman maiden on the Thursday week, the very day she had fixed upon to marry Cartouche.
In this determination to keep Fifi in seclusion until the night of her reappearance on the stage, Duvernet was backed up by Cartouche, who reminded Fifi of the enormous salary she was receiving of fifty francs the week. He had no inkling of the further rise in her fortunes of forty francs the week from the Holy Father.
Meanwhile rehearsals were actively begun, and Fifi had had the exquisite joy of seeing that Julie Campionet was furiously jealous of her. Duvernet, in spite of his unceremonious behavior to her in private, treated her at rehearsals with a respect fitting the place she held on the programme and the stupendous salary she received. All of her fellow actors were either stand-offish with her or over-friendly, but this, Fifi knew, was only a phase. Cartouche alone treated her as he had always done, and even scolded her sharply, saying that in three months she had forgotten what it had taken her three years to learn. But this was hardly exact, for Fifi, being a natural actress, had forgotten very little and had learned a great deal during her exile from the Imperial Theater.
On the morning after the announcement made in the newspapers about Fifi’s gift a great clatter was heard in the street of the Black Cat. An imperial courier came riding to Fifi’s door and handed in a letter with the imperial arms and seal. It was a notification that the next day, at noon, an imperial carriage would be sent for her that she might go to the Tuileries and be thanked personally by the Emperor and Empress for her magnificent generosity to the soldiers’ orphans.
Fifi turned pale as she read this letter. She did not mind the Emperor, but the Empress. And what should she wear?
While considering these momentous questions, Duvernet rushed into the room. He had seen the courier and suspected his errand.
Fifi, with blanched lips, told him. Duvernet was nearly mad with joy.
“Oh,” he cried. “If I was not already married to Julie Campionet and three other women I would marry you this moment, Fifi.”