Volume I Part 5 (2/2)
”She sang very well.”
”That is to say, she had a ravis.h.i.+ng voice, a voice which would not have been out of place at the Opera-Comique.”
”There was one song in particular that she used to sing so sweetly. It was----”
”Oh! I know what you mean! it was the song from La Fanchonnette.”
And Monsieur Chamoureau began to sing:
”La! la! la Fanchonnette Vous chantera landerirette; La! la! la Fanchonnette Vous chantera landerira!
Ah! ah! ah! ah!”
”Oh! she used to sing that roulade differently from that,” said Freluchon; ”she marked her notes. Listen! like this:
”Ah!--ah!--eh!--eh!
Oh!--oh! oh!--eh! eh!--ah! ah!”
”That's so. But that last roulade--Listen! I will sing it as she did:
”Oh!------ oh!--”
”Exactly! it was just like that.”
”And then her air from _Les Fraises_--how she could sing that! Listen, Freluchon:
”Ah! qu'il fait donc bon, Qu'il fait donc bon Cueillir la fraise Au bois de Bagneux, Quand on est deux, Quand on est deux!”
”Excellent! I imagine I am listening to your wife!”
Chamoureau continued:
”Mais quand on est trois, Quand on est trois, Mamzelle Therese!
C'est bien ennuyeux, On est bien mieux Quand on est deux!”
”Perhaps I haven't the words just right, but I'll swear to the tune.”
”Ah! qu'il fait donc bon, Qu'il fait donc bon Cueillir la fraise--”
”Yes, yes, we know that,” said Edmond, who was beginning to have enough of Chamoureau's singing; but he immediately resumed:
”And the air from _Galathee_, which Madame Ugalde sang so beautifully--how well Eleonore sang it!
”Deja dans la coupe profonde Tout s'eclaire d'un nouveau jour J'y vois les caprices du monde--”
”Sapristi! is he never going to stop singing?” said Edmond in an undertone to his friend, who had turned his head away to laugh. ”For heaven's sake, make him keep quiet a moment!”
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