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"LE PETIT DUC".

I decided to leave my hiding-place for comfortable quarters and found a room in the "Quartier des Ternes". But I still doubted whether my mother would send me a regular allowance and it was this state of uncertainly that prevented me from settling down to study art. Evidently Monsieur Bidout's singing lessons had been encouraging, for I actually anticipated gaining my living at once with my voice. But, like myself, it was undeveloped and completely lacking in histrionic qualities. Added to this I was stubbornly opposed to singing with what is commonly called "expression". Perhaps church music would have been more appropriate for me; but as there was no one to give me disinterested advice I fell into the hands of a teacher who specialised in operett  [[strikethrough]] e [[/strikethrough]] as.

He soon convinced me that my talent lay in interpreting this light music, and I, unaware that he was solely preoccupied about his fees, set myself to mastering what in reality I thoroughly disliked. A curious twist of mind, due perhaps to an unusual bringing up, made me grapple with difficulties which, when surmounted, could bring no pleasures and only negative results. Later on this tendency developed in more complicated forms, but at that particular moment it set me to the uncongenial task of learning by heart the title role of "Le Petit Duc", an operette that was being sung at the Théâtre des Variétés by Mademoiselle de Lavallière.

I worked very hard at this role. No one told me that my unemotional voice and foreign accent could only add a still lighter vein of comedy to such impetuous sentiments as were sung by the "Petit Duc" at the very apex of his emotion: 

"Hélàn, il a raison, ma chère, 
L'honneur parle, il faut obéir, 
Ici l'amour, là-bas la guerre. 
C'est là-bas que je dois partir. 
Je t'aime, entends-tu, je t'adore..."