am doing it, you must admit, with the utmost reserve."




CHAPTER V


And so at last the day of the performance came. Esperance, who was so
easily shaken by the ordinary events of life, met any danger or great
event quite calmly. For this young girl, so delicately fair, so frail
of frame, possessed the soul of a warrior.

The sale of tickets had opened eight days in advance. The agents had
realized big profits. The first night always creates a sensation in
Paris. All the social celebrities were in the audience: and, what is
less usual, many "intellectuals." They wished to testify by their
presence their friendship for Francois Darbois, and to protest against
certain journalists, who had not hesitated to say in print that such a
furore about an actress (poor Esperance) was prejudicial to the
dignity of philosophy.

In a box was the Minister of Belgium, who had been married lately, and
wanted to show his young wife a "first night" in Paris. The First
Secretary of the Legation was sitting behind the Minister's wife.

"Look there, that is Count Albert Styvens," said a journalist,
pointing out the Secretary to his neighbour, a young beauty in a very
_decolletee_ gown.