"How do you suppose I know? You should learn your part."
"Thanks! Tire out my brain and give myself a fever--I'm no such fool; if I don't know it, I'll say the first thing that comes into my head.--But Astianax and Eolinde,--where are they?"
"They are learning their parts, and it isn't possible to get near them!"
About noon, the actors began to arrive. There were Dufournelle and his wife; the husband carried an enormous bundle, for the ladies all brought their stage costumes and their ball dresses. Next, Mademoiselle Polymnie appeared with her father, Monsieur Camuzard, who also carried a bundle; then Monsieur Mangeot and his sister, each of them with a bundle.
"Why have you brought so many things," said Glumeau, "since Chambourdin promised the costumes?"
"Oh, yes! catch us relying on Monsieur Chambourdin!" said Madame Dufournelle; "I have made my own costume; I have the part of a cook, and I have borrowed my servant's cap."
Monsieur Camuzard, who was annoyed because no part had been given to him, kept repeating:
"You will be very lucky if someone does not fail you when it's time to begin. On such an occasion as this, accidents always happen, sudden indispositions, just as they do at the theatre. I offered to take part, but they didn't want me."
"But you are to prompt, you know, Monsieur Camuzard; you prompt so well!"
"I am willing to prompt one play, but not three; that is too tiresome."
"I will prompt as many as you please," said stout Dufournelle; "don't be afraid, I am solidly built, and my breath won't give out."
Monsieur Camuzard, seeing that the post of prompter was about to escape him, hastily rejoined:
"After all, when I have got started, it won't be any more trouble to prompt all three plays."
"Let's rehearse, my friends, let's rehearse, let's not lose any more time," said Monsieur Glumeau. "The two short pieces go well enough, but _Roderic et Cunégonde_ doesn't go well at all. There is so much stage play. Astianax, go and get the wooden swords, so that we may rehearse the fights also."
"Do you expect much company this evening?" asked Madame Dufournelle.
"Well, I should say so! A most select audience; I have invited more than a hundred people, more or less; journalists, artists; I don't count the people of the village and the neighborhood, who come to see the play. When I don't allow them to enter, they raise the devil; they besiege the place and break down my trellis."