The young man offered her the lines. "I don't need them," she said
laughing, "I know '_Junia_' by heart." And, indeed, the rehearsal
passed off without a slip, and the little cast separated after
exchanging the most enthusiastic expressions of pleasure.

A comrade asked Perliez, "Is she any good, that pretty little blonde?"

"Very good," Perliez replied curtly.

Everything went well for Esperance. Her appearance on the miniature
stage where the examinations were held caused a little sensation among
the professor-judges.

"What a heavenly child!" exclaimed Victorien Sardou.

"Here is truly the beauty of a noble race," murmured Delaunay, the
well-known member of the Comedie-Francaise.

The musical purity of Esperance's voice roused the assembly
immediately out of its torpor. The judges, no longer bored and
indifferent, followed her words with breathless attention, and when
she stopped a low murmur of admiration was wafted to her.

"Scene from _Iphygenia_," rasped the voice of the man whose duty
it was to make announcements. There was a sound of chairs being
dragged forward, and the members of the jury settling themselves to
the best advantage for listening. Here in itself was a miniature
triumph, repressed by the dignity assumed by all the judges, but which
Esperance appreciated none the less. She bowed with the sensitive