orn from the 1st to the 10th of the month;
from the 11th to the 20th M. Ancessy donned one with hair that was so
visibly growing as to cover his ears. From the 20th to the last day of
the month his locks were positively flowing, and he never failed to say
on that last evening in the hearing of every one, "What a terrible
nuisance my hair is to me! I must have it cut to-morrow."
CHAPTER VII.
Two composers, Auber and Felicien David -- Auber, the legend of
his youthful appearance -- How it arose -- His daily rides, his
love of women's society -- His mot on Mozart's "Don Juan" -- The
only drawback to Auber's enjoyment of women's society -- His
reluctance to take his hat off -- How he managed to keep it on
most of the time -- His opinion upon Meyerbeer's and Halevy's
genius -- His opinion upon Gerard de Nerval, who hanged himself
with his hat on -- His love of solitude -- His fondness of Paris
-- His grievance against his mother for not having given him
birth there -- He refuses to leave Paris at the commencement of
the siege -- His small appetite -- He proposes to write a new
opera when the Prussians are gone -- Auber suffers no privations,
but has difficulty in finding fodder for his horse -- The
Parisians claim it for food -- Another legend about Auber's
independence of sleep -- How and where he generally slept -- Why
Auber snored in Veron's company, and why he did not in that of
other people -- His capacity for work -- Auber a brilliant talker
-- Auber's gratitude to the artists who interpreted his work, but
different from Meyerbeer's -- The reason why, according to Auber
-- Jealousy or humility -- Auber and the younger Coquelin -- "The
verdict on all things in this world may be summed up in the one
phrase, 'It's an injustice'" -- Felicien David -- The man -- The
beginnings of his career -- His terrible poverty -- He joins the
Saint-Simoniens, and goes with some of them to the East -- Their
reception at Constantinople -- M. Scribe and the libretto of
"L'Africaine" -- David in Egypt at the court of Mehemet-Ali --
David's description of him -- Mehemet's way of testing the
educational progress of his sons -- Woe to the fat kine --
Mehemet-Ali suggests a new mode of teaching music to the inmates
of the harem -- Felicien David's further wanderings in Egypt --
Thei
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