ou is true.' And
Josephine advanced, warmly cheered by the spectators, who thought that
they were going to have some more tumbling. She advanced, however, as
Andromache. It seemed to Sidonia that he had never listened to a voice
more rich and passionate, to an elocution more complete; he gazed with
admiration on her lightning glance and all the tumult of her noble brow.
As she finished, he applauded her with vehemence. He was standing near
to her father leaning against the wall.

'Your daughter is a great actress,' he said to Baroni.

'I sometimes think so,' said the father, turning round with some
courtesy to Sidonia, whom he recognised as the liberal stranger who had
so kindly increased his meagre audience; 'I let her do this to please
herself. She is a good girl, but very few of the respectable savages
here speak French. However, she likes it. Adelaide is now going to sing;
that will suit them better.'

Then there were a few more bars scraped on the violin, and Adelaide,
glowing rather than blushing, with her eyes first on the ground and then
on the ceiling, but in all her movements ineffable grace, came forward
and courtesied. She sang an air of Auber and of Bellini: a voice of the
rarest quality, and, it seemed to Sidonia, promising almost illimitable
power.

'Your family is gifted,' he said to Baroni, as he applauded his second
daughter as warmly as the first; and the audience applauded her too.

'I sometimes think so. They are all very good. I am afraid, however,
that this gift will not serve her much. The good-natured savages seem
pleased. Carlotta now is going to dance; that will suit them better. She
has had good instruction. Her mother was a dancer.'

And immediately, with her lip a little curling, a look of complete
self-possession, willing to be admired, yet not caring to conceal her
disgust, the little Carlotta advanced, and, after pointing her toe,
threw a glance at her father to announce that he might begin. He played
with more care and energy than for the other sisters, for Carlotta was
exceedingly wilful and imperious, and, if the music jarred, would often
stop, shrug her shoulders, and refuse to proceed. Her mother doted
on her; even the austere Baroni, who ruled his children like a Pasha,
though he loved them, was a little afraid of Carlotta.

The boards were coarse and rough, some even not sufficiently tightened,
but it seemed to Sidonia, experienced as he was in the schools of Paris,
London