“You must make him wear a frock coat.”
“And then he has a nose of such length—my dear, you can’t conceive what it is! His nose frightens me.”
“I never knew you to be so timid.”
“The fact is, I don’t want to marry. Later, we’ll see about it. Do you know, I am strongly inclined to go on the stage?”
“Ah! that’s something new.”
“Tell me, do you think I’d be very bad? You see, I have a good voice when I choose. Do you know that I’m as pretty as a love, on the stage?”
“You have no need to be on the stage for that, madame.”
“Dieu! how genteel! But really, no joking, rouge and the bright light and the footlights—all those things make me a dazzling sight. I have tried on Iphigénie’s costume, and it’s surprising how becoming it is. I had an offer to go into the chorus at the Vaudeville, but that didn’t tempt me much.”
“Not to play Iphigénie?”
“No; how stupid you are! It was to get accustomed to the boards and the audience, as they say, and to looking into the auditorium. What do you advise me to do?”