“Oh! for heaven’s sake, uncle! are you trying to make us cry too? You distract monsieur’s attention; you will be responsible for my portrait not looking like me.”
“Your uncle may talk, mademoiselle; I assure you that it doesn’t interfere with my work at all.”
Caroline gave a little pout of vexation, which I would have liked to reproduce on the ivory, because it was very becoming to her. I thought that she wanted her uncle to leave us; but Monsieur Roquencourt had no such intention.
After walking about the room several times, he came to watch me work, then looked at his niece and exclaimed:
“Upon my word, Caroline has in her face, especially in her eyes, much resemblance to Mademoiselle Lange. You did not know Mademoiselle Lange, who used to act at the Français, did you?”
“No, monsieur.”
“Ah! Monsieur Dalbreuse, she was perhaps the one actress who had more truth, more charm in her way of speaking than any other; and a charming woman besides! I knew her well; she taught me to put on my rouge. It is a very difficult thing to put on one’s rouge well; I used to daub my face all over with it. She said to me one evening when I had just done Gros-René—you know, Gros-René in Le Dépit Amoureux:
“‘La femme est, comme on dit, mon maître,
Un certain animal difficile à connaître,
Et de qui la nature est fort encline au mal;
Et comme un animal est toujours animal,
Et ne sera jamais——’”
“Oh! we have seen Le Dépit Amoureux, uncle! That speech isn’t the best thing in Molière, in my opinion.”
“As I was saying, I had been playing Gros-René, and with great success, on my word! I had made the audience laugh until they cried. Lange led me aside after the performance, and said to me: ‘You acted like a god! you acted divinely; but, my friend, you don’t know how to put on your rouge; you make big daubs everywhere; that isn’t the way; you must put on a lot under the eyes; your eyes are very bright already, but you will see how much brighter that makes them; then, put on less and less toward the ears, and almost none at all on the lower part of the face.’—I followed her advice, and I gained greatly by it.”