Fifteen years of a dancer's life : $b With some account of her distinguished friendsFuller, Loie
General
Fifteen years of a dancer's life : $b With some account of her distinguished friends
Fuller, Loie
Dancers -- United States -- Biography; Fuller, Loie, 1862-1928
The King asked, I remember, if I could dance “Home, Sweet Home.” I
had never tried it, but it did not seem to me difficult--with the
accompaniment of the exquisite melody--to express the words,
“There’s no place like home.”
[Illustration: DANCE TO GOUNOD’S “AVE MARIA”]
I had danced that evening Gounod’s _Ave Maria_ some bacchanal dances,
some other dances, based upon slow movements of Mendelssohn’s concertos
for the dances of death, and on Chopin’s _Marche, Funèbre_ for the
funeral dances. My excellent orchestra leader, Edmond Bosanquet, had,
furthermore, composed some perfect music for dances of joy and of
grief. In brief, I must have danced at least twenty times, and we had
ended with the radiant dances, which the King had never seen. Everyone,
it is needless to say, congratulated me in a most charming way, but the
loveliest of all was Princess Marie, who brought me a large photograph
of herself, on which she had written: “In memory of an evening during
which you filled my heart with joy.”
The day before our departure from Bucharest some money, which was to
have been wired me, had not arrived, and I found myself in a genuine
predicament. I had twelve people and several thousand pounds of baggage
to get to Rome, where I was to make my first appearance on Easter Day.
To arrive there in time we should have to take the train next morning.
I went accordingly to the princess, who was the only person whom I knew
in Roumania, to ask her if she would come to my assistance.
I called on her at nine o’clock in the morning. I was taken to the
second storey of the palace, to a room that was even prettier, if
possible, than the one in which I had been received the first time.
The princess received me. She was in her night-robe, and had put on a
dressing-gown of white silk over which her beautiful dishevelled hair
hung. She was still engaged in her toilet when I arrived, but in order
not to make me wait, she bade me come into her little boudoir, where no
one would disturb us. The room, filled with well-chosen first editions,
was in charming taste. Everywhere there were little draped statuettes
on pedestals. Beside the fireplace was a very comfortable corner. In
the midst of all these beautiful objects one might have thought oneself
in a miniature museum.
I asked her what she liked best among all the things there and she
replied, “the rosaries,” of which she had quite a collection. What an
artist she must be to bring together all these beautiful things.
“This is my room,” she said, while we were talking, “in which whatever
happens no one is permitted to bother me. I take refuge here from time
to time, and remain until I feel myself ready to face the world once
more.”
I then told her my troubles. She rang a bell, and gave an order to let
M. X---- know immediately that Miss Fuller would come to see him with
a card from her, and that M. X---- would kindly do everything in his
power to assist Miss Fuller.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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