Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVIII. La Salpêtrière
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
comrades began to turn up at Avenue de Villiers,
to consult me on the sly, afraid as they were to be
put on half pay by the regular doctor of the
Opera. The coulisses of the Corps de Ballet
were a new world to me not exempt from danger
to the inexperienced explorer for, alas, it was not
only to the altar of the Goddess Terpsichore that
these young vestals brought the garlands of their
youth. Luckily for me their Terpsichore had
been turned out of my Olympus with the last
forgotten strains of Gluck’s Chaconne and Mozart’s
Menuett, what remained to-day was to my eyes
acrobatics pure and simple. Not so with the
other onlookers in the coulisses. I never ceased
to wonder at the facility with which these decrepit
Don Giovannis lost their balance while watching
all these half-naked girls keeping theirs on the
tip of their toes.
Yvonne had her first hæmorrhage and the
trouble began in earnest. Maupassant like all
authors who write about illness and death hated
to watch it at close quarters. Yvonne drank
bottles of cod-liver oil by the dozen in order to get
fat, she knew her lover did not like thin women.
It was all in vain, soon nothing remained of her
fair youth but her wonderful eyes, lustrous with
fever and ether. Maupassant’s purse remained
open to her, but his arms soon closed round the
body of one of her comrades. Yvonne threw a
bottle of vitriol at the face of her rival, luckily
she nearly missed her. She escaped with two
months’ imprisonment thanks to Maupassant’s
powerful influence and to a certificate from me
that she had only a couple of months to live.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
