Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 24, 2025
An aged and repellent Jew came into sight. He raised Madame Foa's hand to his odious lips and kissed it, and Audrey wondered how Madame Foa could tolerate the formality. "Well, Monsieur Xavier?" Xavier shrugged his round shoulders. "Do not say," said he, in a hoarse voice to the company, "do not say that I have not done my best on this occasion."
Madame Foa's pen has long since stopped its task of writing of French heroism for the boys and girls of France; but it never wrote anything more attractive or inspiring than the delicious bit of boasting that it put into the mouth of this dear and battered old veteran of Napoleon's wars, Corporal Nonesuch of the Soldiers' Home.
"You invited him to play at your flat on Friday night, Monsieur." Monsieur Foa gave a sudden enchanting smile: "Yes, Madame. I hear much good of him from my friend Dauphin, much good. And we long to hear him play. It appears he is a great artist." "He has had an accident," said Audrey. Monsier Foa's face grew serious. "It is nothing a few days. The elbow a trifle. He cannot play next Friday.
Musa himself was certainly pleased and happy.... He had played at Foa's, where it was absolutely essential to play if one intended to conquer Paris and to prove one's pretensions; and he had found favour with this satiated and fastidious audience. "Ouf!" sighed the musical critic Orientally lounging on a chair. "André, has it occurred to you that we are expiring for want of air?"
A window was opened, and a shiver went through the assembly. The clanging sounded again, but no dog, for the dog had been exterminated. "Dauphin, my old pig!" Foa's greeting from the entrance floated into the drawing-room, and then a very impressed: "Mademoiselle" from Madame Foa. "What?" cried Dauphin. "Musa has played? He played well? So much the better. What did I tell you?"
A week of practice lost is eternally lost. And on Wednesday one had invited me to play at Foa's. And I cannot." "Foa? Who is Foa?" "What! You do not know Foa? In order to succeed it is necessary, it is essential, to play at Foa's. That alone gives the cachet. Dauphin told me last week. He arranged it. After having played at Foa's all is possible. Dauphin was about to abandon me when he met Foa.
The distinction of Madame Foa's simple dress had reassured Audrey to a certain extent, but the size of the drawing-room disconcerted her again. She had understood that the house of the Foas was the real esoteric centre of musical Paris, and she had prepared herself for vast and luxurious salons, footmen, fountains of wine, rare flowers, dandies, and the divine shoulders of operatic sopranos who combined wit with the most seductive charm. The drawing-room of the Foas was not as large as her own drawing-room at the Danube. Still it was full, and double doors leading to an unseen dining-room at right angles to its length produced an illusion of space. Some of the men and some of the women were elegant, and even very elegant; others were not. Audrey instantly with her expert eye saw that the pictures on the walls were of the last correctness, and a few by illustrious painters. Here and there she could see scrawled on them "
Word Of The Day
Others Looking