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He was handsomer than his brother, being more matured, and there were a thousand subtile differences between them; but it all came down to this Gaston Cheverny was to be loved Regnard Cheverny was not. Presently, supper was announced. It was there, around the table, that wit sparkled. Mademoiselle Lecouvreur sat at the head, with Count Saxe on one hand and Monsieur Voltaire on the other.
Neither Mademoiselle Lecouvreur nor Monsieur Voltaire replied to him, but getting into the coach in which they came, were driven away under a narrow archway and were out of sight in a minute. Jacques Haret's mention of a serving-man directed my attention to an elderly man in the well-known purple and canary livery of Madame Riano, who stood close to the stage, never budging from his place.
Then, as if shaking off the spell cast upon him by the stars, he began to talk of the most trifling things on earth about Monsieur Voltaire, for example. "My coach is ordered to take us to Mademoiselle Lecouvreur's," he said. "I dare say that scoundrel of a Voltaire will be there as you say you saw him with Mademoiselle Lecouvreur in the Hôtel Kirkpatrick garden.
She is fully persuaded of the value of the modern spirit, and she belongs to the time by nothing more than by her instinctive and hearty adaptation of the principles of art which are illustrated in all other departments. There is nothing in Millais's or Hunt's paintings more purely pre-Raphaelite than Rachel's acting in the last scenes of "Adrienne Lecouvreur". It is the perfection of detail.
I replied, with truth, that I neither knew nor cared, not wishing to wring Mademoiselle Lecouvreur's tender heart with the story of Jacques Haret's latest villainy. We remained an hour. Several times I would have left, but Monsieur Voltaire detained me by a glance. At last, when Mademoiselle Lecouvreur was inclined to sleep, we departed.
It was very like Adrienne Lecouvreur to memorize only such poems as were mournful, just as in after life she could win success upon the stage only in tragic parts.
"He also has the right of raising taxes with the consent of the Diet and if the Diet is handsomely treated, taxes can be raised as high as the moon. And more." Here he paused, and looked about him solemnly. Everybody was on the broad grin, except Count Saxe, Mademoiselle Lecouvreur and myself. I had almost gnawed my under lip off. "The Duke of Courland is also pope.
A friendly grocer let them have an empty store-room for their performances, and in this store-room Adrienne Lecouvreur first acted in a tragedy by Corneille, assuming the part of leading woman. Her genius for the stage was like the genius of Napoleon for war. She had had no teaching.
In "Adrienne Lecouvreur" it struck me that the careless stage-management utterly ruined the play, and I could not bear to see Duse as Adrienne beautifully dressed while the Princess and the other Court ladies wore cheap red velveteen and white satin and brought the pictorial level of the performance down to that of a "fit-up" or booth. Still, I have been a long time by the way.
There were several persons standing about, listening and understanding, and a smile went around at Monsieur Voltaire's expense. Mademoiselle Lecouvreur looked distressed.
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