Halanzier lived in a beautiful apartment on the third floor of the superb mansion which formed one of the corners of the Place Vendome. I began the reading at once. Halanzier stopped me so little that I went right through the whole of the five acts. My voice was gone ... and my hands were useless from fatigue. As I put my manuscript back into my old leather portfolio and Gallet and I prepared to go: "Well! So you leave me no copy?" I looked at Gallet in stupefaction. "Then you intend to perform the work?" "The future will tell." I was scarcely reinstalled in our apartment in the Rue du General Foy on my return to Paris in October, than the morning's mail brought me the following bulletin from the Opéra: _Le Roi 2 heures----Foyer_ The parts had been given to Mlle. Josephine de Reszke--her two brothers Jean and Edouard were to ornament the stage later on--Salomon and Lassalle, the last creating a rôle for the first time. There was no public dress rehearsal. It was not the custom then as it is nowadays to have a rehearsal for the "couturières," then for the "colonelle" and, finally, the "general" rehearsal. In spite of the obviously sympathetic demonstrations of the orchestra and all the personnel at the rehearsal, Halanzier announced that as they were putting on the first work of a debutant at the Opéra, he wanted to look after everything himself until after the first performance. I want to record again my deep gratitude to that singularly good director who loved youth and protected it. The staging, scenery and costumes were of unheard-of splendor; the interpretation of the first order.... The first performance of _Le Roi de Lahore_, the twenty-seventh of April, 1877, was a glorious event in my life. Apropos of this I recall that on that morning Gustave Flaubert left his card with the servant, without even asking for me. On it were these words: "This morning I pity you; to-night I shall envy you." These lines show so well the admirable understanding of the writer of _Salammbo_ and that immortal masterpiece _Madame Bovary_. The next morning I received the following lines from the famous architect and great artist Charles Gamier: "I do not know whether it is the hall which makes good music; but, _sapristi_, what I do know is that I lost none of your work and found it _admirable_. That's the truth. "Your "CARLO." The magnificent Opéra had been opened sixteen months previously, January 5, 1875, and the critics had considered it their duty to attack the acoustics of that marvellous house built by the most exceptionally competent man of modern times. It is true that the criticism did not last, for when one speaks of Garnier's magnificent work it is in words which are eloquent in their simplicity, "What a fine theater!" The hall obviously has not changed, but the public which pays to Garnier his just and rightful homage. CHAPTER XII THE THEATERS IN ITALY