hing--for the Theatre Royal."

"She will require a great salary."

"Of course; but the proprietors will gain. Everybody will want to see
her."

"She lodges at M. Lorman's?"

"No. She will stay at the Hotel St. Amand, opposite the cathedral."

"Is she old, Monsieur?"

"No, not old; not thirty years."

"Ah!--The sea is very rough to-night, Monsieur."

"Yes; more so than we often see it."

She went downstairs. By-and-by, as she sat knitting, she heard
Monsieur's fiddle as he played over a passage in the morrow's score.

III.

Mademoiselle Elise was down early at the theatre, which looked very grey
and very miserable in the pitiless daylight. M. Lorman was with her.
When Raoul appeared, she said:

"So this is your monster. Introduce him to me."

And the hunchback, with his fiddle under his arm and his bow hanging
loosely from his left hand, was duly presented. Mademoiselle's eyes
beamed graciously as she held out her hand and said what pleasure it
gave her to make the acquaintance of one who loved art for its own sake.
Then, while M. Lorman bustled here and there, she took the violin and
begged Raoul to show her how to hold it. She laughed like a child when
the drawing of the bow across the strings only produced a horrid noise.
Then she asked him to play the dance movement from the garden scene.

He played.

"A little slower, please."

He played more slowly. She moved a few steps, and then paused and sat
down, marking the time of the music with her foot.

"Yes, that is beautiful!" she said.

Raoul sat and watched while the rehearsal proceeded.

They played "Le vrai Amant." Mademoiselle infused a new life into all,
and scarcely seemed to feel the labour of it. Raoul marvelled that a
woman, apparently delicate, should be possessed of such tireless energy.
She criticised so freely, and insisted so much on the repetition of
seeming trivialities, that, as the morning wore on, Augustin--who was
"le vrai Amant"--lost patience and glanced markedly at his watch. But
she did not heed him.

Beside Raoul sat M. Lorman, in high spirits. "Good! good!" he ejaculated
at intervals. "But she is marvellous!" And after each outburst of
satisfaction he took a pinch of snuff.

When at last Mademoiselle sank exhausted into her chair, the others
seized hats and cloaks and fled hurriedly, lest she should revive and
begin all over again.

She called to Raoul to bring his score, that she might show him where to
play sl