Page:The fortunes of Fifi (IA fortunesoffifi00seawiala).pdf/266

 time, walked to the mairie and then to the parish church, and were married hard and fast. From thence they went to a cheap café to breakfast, and Duvernet, in honor of the occasion, had a two-franc bouquet of violets on the table. All of the waiters knew that two of the party were bride and groom, but Cartouche was so solemn and silent, and Duvernet so gay and talkative, that everybody supposed Duvernet the happy man and Cartouche the disappointed suitor.

It was then time for the rehearsal, which lasted nearly all the rest of the day, Cartouche being unusually strict. When the curtain went up in the evening never was there such an audience or so much money in the Imperial Theater. The best seats were put at the unprecedented price of two francs and a half, and Duvernet gnashed his teeth that he had not made them three francs, so great was the crowd. The play was the famous classical one in which Duvernet had worn the toga made of Fifi's white petticoat. This time he had a beautiful toga, bought at a sale of third and fourth-hand theatrical wardrobes, and it had been washed by Julie Campionet's own hands.

Everybody in the cast made a success. Even