Without a sound the violets and the soft grey shining dress and the delicate golden hair vanished from the silver room into the bronze. The two men left alone together exchanged a long, challenging look. Jean did not feel particularly attracted towards his companion. Louis Flaubert looked a little like a round birthday-cake with too much pink icing on the top.
“Madame is always gay! always gay!” Flaubert said after a moment’s pause. “Maintenant, Monsieur, parlons de vos affaires; elles vous sourient en ce moment.”
Jean sat down and listened attentively to what Flaubert put before him. It appeared that Torialli’s connection was enormous and his every hour pressed to overflowing. He could only take the best and most important of the pupils who applied to him.
“The best from the point of view of art,” Flaubert explained. “That you will find is the great point here, Monsieur; we make nothing of success or of material value here! We are, as it were, in a world beyond all that—but for art to preserve its purity we slave! I have had myself to take many of the pupils of Torialli—I am over-weighted with work; of course, I have the advantage that I know the system. Yes, I may say that for myself the system has become a part of me—and I have almost become a part of the system. I refer, of course, to the production of the voice; it is what we refer to chiefly here. You will find yourself in a positive factory for the human voice in all its stages and conditions. For a young man with musical talents and a career to make, I think, I don’t say lightly, that the advantages are simply inestimable. There is much of the work, however, which is not purely technical. You will find out all that later—appointments to make—business letters to write—concerts to arrange for—all these things will be invaluable for your future experience. They will introduce you to the necessary workings of public life. You will, of course, accompany regularly my pupils, and from time to time when I am unavoidably detained about the management of affairs—and I must tell you this often happens, for Torialli is, like Madame, an artist pure and simple—you will, of course, hold yourself in readiness to accompany for him. What you will learn then, I need not say, is an opportunity many men in Paris would give their heads for!”
Jean gratefully acknowledged the splendour of his future, and felt that after this it would seem ungrateful and even grasping on his part to press for a salary. Still he had to live, and one cannot live on the magnificence of future prospects alone. He suggested hesitatingly to Louis that there was this difficulty.
“We will come to all that,” said Flaubert a little impatiently. “Many men would pay to have the opportunity that is before you, but I understand from Cartier that your circumstances—?”
Jean blushed hotly. Somehow he hated to talk to this man about his circumstances.
“I am very poor indeed,” he said coldly. Louis looked slightly incredulous, but rubbed his hands together more than ever.
“Well! well! we shall remedy all that!” he said. “Your hours will be from nine to six o’clock, Monsieur, at my house, you know; a truly unpretentious place close by, Number 34; and the evenings you have entirely to yourself—you can therefore earn as much as you like during your free time. We do not seek to bind you in any way. Of course, you quite understand that nothing must ever be said about the system? Of that we must be as careful as if it was a secret of the confessional. From now you are one of us. You agree to this, I hope?”
“Oh yes, certainly,” said Jean.