Part 25 (1/2)
He was laughing still
”It is you, is it? You h on another note, my friend, if I choose a way to recoup myself that I know of”
”Dullard!” Scaramouche scorned hione with fifteen louis? Hasn't he left you soaped unco
”You are between tines, I think You've been drinking,” he concluded
”So I have--at the fountain of Thalia Oh, don't you see? Don't you see the treasure that Cordemais has left behind hiroundwork of a scenario It unfolds itself all before me I'll borrow part of the title from Moliere We'll call it 'Les Fourberies de Scaramouche,' and if we don't leave the audiences of Maure and Pipriac with sides aching frohter I'll play the dullard Pantaloon in future”
Polichinelle smacked fist into palm ”Superb!” he said, fiercely ”To cull fortune froenius”
Scara ”Polichinelle, you are a fellow after my own heart I love a man who can discern undy to-night in spite of the flight of Cordeundy?” roared M Binet, and before he could get farther Harlequin had clapped his hands together
”That is the spirit, M Binet You heard hiundy”
”I called for nothing of the kind”
”But you heard him, dear madame We all heard him”
The others made chorus, whilst Scaramouche smiled at hie Did you not say that fortune awaits us? And have we not now the ithal to constrain fortune? Burgundy, then, to to toast 'Les Fourberies de Scaramouche'”
And M Binet, as not blind to the force of the idea, yielded, took courage, and got drunk with the rest
CHAPTER VI CLIMENE
Diligent search a the many scenarios of the i to light the scenario of ”Les Fourberies de Scaramouche,” upon which we are told the fortunes of the Binet troupe came to be soundly established They played it for the first ti week, with Andre-Louis--as known by now as Scaramouche to all the company, and to the public alike--in the title-role If he had acquitted hiaro-Scaramouche, he excelled himself in the new piece, the scenario of which would appear to be very much the better of the two
After Maure caiven, two of each of the scenarios that now formed the backbone of the Binet repertoire In both Scara to find himself, materially improved his performances So smoothly now did the two pieces run that Scaraeray, which they were to visit in the folloeek, they should tempt fortune in a real theatre in the important town of Redon The notion terrified Binet at first, but co fanned by Andre-Louis, he ended by allowing himself to succumb to the temptation
It seemed to Andre-Louis in those days that he had found his realto like it, but actually to look forward to a career as actor-author that ht indeed lead him in the end to that Mecca of all comedians, the Comedie Francaise And there were other possibilities Froht presently pass to writing plays of dialogue, plays in the proper sense of the word, after the lantine, and Beaumarchais
The fact that he dreamed such dreams shows us how very kindly he had taken to the profession into which Chance and M Binet between them had conspired to thrust him That he had real talent both as author and as actor I do not doubt, and I as fallen out differently he would have won for hi French dramatists, and thus fully have realized that drealect the practical side of it
”You realize,” he told M Binet, ”that I have it in my power toalone together in the parlour of the inn at Pipriac, drinking a very excellent bottle of Volnay It was on the night after the fourth and last performance there of ”Les Feurberies” The business in Pipriac had been as excellent as in Maure and Guichen You will have gathered this from the fact that they drank Volnay
”I will concede it, my dear Scaramouche, so that I may hear the sequel”
”I am disposed to exercise this power if the inducement is sufficient