"How many rehearsals do you want?" the manager asked his new recruit; who replied, with the assurance which never deserted him:
"One will be enough. I know the piece by heart, and at a pinch I could play all the parts."
But, at the rehearsal, il Signor Rouladini, who claimed to know the play by heart, did not know even his own lines, and repeatedly turned to the prompter.
"I have forgotten it a little, because I knew it too well," he said. "But to-morrow, before the audience, I shan't miss a word."
"You are still very hoarse," said the manager; "would you prefer to have your début postponed a day or two?"
"No, indeed! for my voice will be just the same later; but on the day of my début, I will swallow the yolks of two or three eggs raw, and my voice will be clear and sweet. Don't you worry at all!"
The manager did not seem to be altogether reassured, but all the artists to whom Dodichet had given a dinner declared that he must have a very sweet voice when he was not hoarse. The leading lady advised him not to smoke till after his début. But Dodichet laughed in her face, and offered to bet that he would smoke on the stage while she was singing; the manager formally forbade his débutant to make that experiment, and warned him that the audiences in that town were not very patient.
"That's because you don't know how to take them," was the reply; "I defy them to show a bad temper with me!"
The day of the début arrived. In the morning there was another rehearsal. Dodichet knew his part no better, and constantly appealed to the prompter, an obstinate old supernumerary, who insisted that the débutant was deaf. The voice was somewhat improved, thanks to the yolks of eggs; but on leaving the rehearsal, Dodichet, in order to tighten up his nerves, drank punch and treated all his comrades except the prompter, with whom he was angry; and therein he made a capital mistake: an actor should take as much pains to stand well with his prompter as a tenant with his concierge.
At dinner, Dodichet thought it best to get slightly tipsy, so that he would not be frightened when he faced the audience. Then he smoked, coughed, spat, and tried his voice: the punch had entirely destroyed the effect of the eggs, and his voice was almost inaudible. He sent out for eggs, and ate several more raw while he was dressing, so that he was horribly sick at his stomach when he went on the stage.