Binet had made.
And then followed from him the announcement that their success in
Nantes was the sweeter to him because it rendered almost immediately
attainable the dearest wish of his heart, which was to make Climene
his wife. It was a felicity of which he was the first to acknowledge
his utter unworthiness. It was to bring him into still closer
relations with his good friend M. Binet, to whom he owed all that he
had achieved for himself and for them. The announcement was joyously
received, for the world of the theatre loves a lover as dearly as
does the greater world. So they acclaimed the happy pair, with the
exception of poor Leandre, whose eyes were more melancholy than ever.
They were a happy family that night in the upstairs room of their
inn on the Quai La Fosse - the same inn from which Andre-Louis had
set out some weeks ago to play a vastly different role before an
audience of Nantes. Yet was it so different, he wondered? Had he
not then been a sort of Scaramouche - an intriguer, glib and
specious, deceiving folk, cynically misleading them with opinions
that were not really his own? Was it at all surprising that he
should have made so rapid and signal a success as a mime? Was not
this really all that he had ever been, the thing for which Nature
had designed him?
On the following night they played "The Shy Lover" to a full house,
the fame of their debut having gone abroad, and the success of
Monday was confirmed.
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