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st plan, but it was partly finished. In the collection, we find the scattered treasures of an eminently French muse: old songs picked up in the provinces, in which wit and naive sentimentality dispute for precedence. All this still exists, but who can sing as he did the song beginning: "I was but fifteen," or "Lisette, my love, shall I forever languish?" and so many others! To explain the inexpressible charm which distinguished Delsarte from all other singers, a songstress once said: "His singing contrives to give us the _soul of the note_. The others are _artists_, but _he_ is _the artist_." Chapter XVI. Delsarte's Evening Lectures. In Francois Delsarte's school there were morning classes and evening classes. The former were more especially devoted to the theory, to lessons. Those of which I shall speak might be compared to lectures, to dramatic and musical meetings. A choice public was always present. Among them were: The composers Reber and Gounod; Doctor Dailly, Madame de Meyendorf--a great Russian lady, the friend of art; The Princess de Chimay and the Princess Czartoriska, who glided modestly in and took the humblest place; Madame Blanchecotte, whose charming verses were crowned by the Academy; Countess d'Haussonville, a familiar name; M. Joly de Bammeville, one of the exhibitors at the Exhibition of Retrospective Arts, in 1878; Doriot, the sculptor; Madame de Lamartine, Madame Laure de Leomenil, a well-known painter; Madame de Blocqueville, daughter of Marshal Davout, and author of his biography; a throng of artists, men of letters and scientists; certain original figures of the period. On one occasion we were joined by a man of some celebrity--the chiromancist Desbarolles. Delsarte had the courtesy to base his theory lesson upon the latter's system; he pointed out its points of relation with the sum total of the constitution of the human being. It was a lesson full of spirit and piquant allusions; one of those charming impromptus in which Delsarte never failed. From time to time certain persons in clerical robes appeared in the audience; the austerity of their habit contrasting somewhat strangely with the attire of the elegant women, men of fashion and young actors in their apprenticeship around them; but matters always settled themselves. One evening one of these priests was in a neighboring room, the doors of which were open into the drawing-room. If the songs seemed to
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