Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/36

Rh his name. The embryo manager was very witty, though his wife did not perceive it; he was very ugly, which she plainly perceived. She was one of those smart brunettes with long eyelashes, whose hearts are of most inflammable material, which deserve a better destiny than to light a fire of straw. I was young and so was the lady: she was only sixteen, her husband thirty-five. As soon as I found myself out of place, I went to seek this couple; it struck me that they would advise me correctly. They gave me some dinner and congratulated me in having dared to free myself from the despotic yoke of Garnier. "Since you are your own master," said the husband to me, "you had better accompany us: you will assist us; at least, when we are three in number we shall have no lost time between the acts; you will move the actors whilst Eliza goes round with the hat; thus the public will be attracted and not go off, and our profits will be more abundant. What say you, Eliza?" Eliza answered, that she would do in this respect all he might desire, and besides she entirely agreed with him; and at the same time gave me a look which bespoke that she was not displeased, and that we should soon understand each other. I accepted the new employ with gratitude, and at the next representation I was installed to my office. The situation was infinitely superior to that at Garnier's. Eliza, who, despite my leanness, had discovered that I was not so badly made as I was clothed, made a thousand secret advances, to which I was not backward in reply: at the end of three days she said she loved me. I was not ungrateful; we were happy and constantly together. At home, we only laughed, played and joked. Eliza's husband took all that for child's sport; when at work we were side by side under a narrow cabin, formed of four cloth rags, dignified by the splendid title of "Theatre of Amusing Varieties." Eliza was on the right of her husband, and I on her right hand, and filled her place when she was not there to superintend the exits and entrances. One Sunday the