0:00 CHAPTER LIII. ROBERT LE DIABLE.
0:31 The pretext of an opera engagement was so much the more feasible, as there chanced to be on that very night a more than ordinary attraction at the Académie Royale. Levasseur, who had been
0:37 suffering under severe illness, made his reappearance in the character of Bertrand,
0:41 and, as usual, the announcement of the most admired production of the favorite
0:45 composer of the day had attracted a brilliant and fashionable audience.
0:50 Morserf, like most other young men of rank and fortune, had his orchestra stall, with
0:54 the certainty of always finding a seat in at least a dozen of the principal boxes occupied
0:59 by persons of his acquaintance.
1:01 He had, moreover, his right of entry into the omnibus-box. Chateau-Renaud
1:06 rented a stall beside his own, while Beauchamp, as a journalist, had unlimited range all over
1:11 the theatre. It happened that on this particular night the minister's box was placed at the
1:16 disposal of Lucien de Bray, who offered it to the Comte de Morserve, who again, upon
1:21 his mother's rejection of it, sent it to d' to danglars with an intimation that he should probably do himself the honour of joining the baroness and her daughter during the evening in the event of their gratuitous opera-box more acceptable than to the wealthy millionaire,
1:50 who still hugs economy while boasting of carrying a king's ransom in his waistcoat pocket.
1:56 Danglars had, however, protested against showing himself in a ministerial box,
2:01 declaring that his political principles and his parliamentary position as a member of the opposition party would not permit him so to commit himself. The Baroness had,
2:05 therefore, dispatched a note to Lucien Dubray, bidding him call for them, it being wholly
2:10 impossible for her to go alone with Eugenie to the opera. There is no gainsaying the fact that
2:16 a very unfavourable construction would have been put upon the circumstance if the two women had
2:21 gone without escort, while the addition of a third, in the person of her mother's admitted lover, enabled Mademoiselle d'Anglars to defy malice and ill-nature. One must take the
2:31 world as one finds it. The curtain rose, as usual, to an almost empty house, it being one of the
2:37 absurdities of Parisian fashion never to appear at the opera until after the beginning of the
2:42 performance, so that the first act is generally played without the slightest attention being paid to it, that part of the audience
2:49 already assembled being too much occupied in observing the fresh arrivals, while nothing
2:54 is heard but the noise of opening and shutting doors, and the buzz of conversation.
2:59 "'Surely,' said Albert, as the door of a box on the first circle opened,
3:02 "'that must be the Comtesse G.'
3:04 "'And who is the Comtesse G.
3:08 "'And who is the Comtesse G?' inquired Chateau Renaud.
3:14 "'What a question! Now do you know, Baron, I have a great mind to pick a quarrel with you for asking it, as if all the world did not know who the Comtesse G was.'
3:18 "'Ah, to be sure,' replied Chateau Renaud.
3:21 "'The lovely Venetian, is it not?'
3:23 "'Herself.'
3:24 At this moment the Countess perceived
3:27 Albert, and received his salutation with a smile. You know her, it seems, said Chateau-Renaud.
3:33 Franz introduced me to her at Rome, replied Albert. Well, then, will you do as much for
3:39 me in Paris as Franz did for you in Rome? With pleasure. There was a cry of shut up from the audience.
3:47 This manifestation on the part of the spectators of their wish to be allowed to hear the music
3:52 produced not the slightest effect on the young men, who continued their conversation.
3:57 The Countess was present at the races in the Champs-de-Mars, said Chateau Renaud.
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