In the Shadows of Paris (The Predator Of Batignolles) Read Online Free PDF Page B

noon.’
    ‘You seem to know an awful lot about him, Eugénie,’ remarked Ravaillac. ‘Anybody would think you were privy to the maestro’s secrets…Pillow talk, perhaps?’
    ‘Isn’t Maria de Medici Henry IV’s other half, clever-clogs?’
    A voice boomed, ‘Company on stage!’ and they scurried back to the boards where King Henry sat on high in an open carriage while some stagehands struggled to put up a backdrop representing Rue de la Ferronnerie, with its letter-writers’ and washerwomen’s shops.
    ‘Hey! Wake up, Ravaillac! Where’s your wig? You’re supposed to be a redhead. What on earth possessed me to hire such a ham! For heaven’s sake, you’re meant to cut my throat, not sit around jabbering with these ladies!’
     
    The manager’s office was on the second floor, above the foyer. As soon as the rehearsal had finished, Edmond Leglantier hurried upstairs to change. He peeled off his false beard, smothered his face in cold cream, cleaned off the greasepaint and coloured his salt-and-pepper moustache with some makeup filched from Eugénie. He crooned as he buttoned his shirt:
‘ No more gaming at the table
Ding dong! The horse is in the stable.
A fine, handsome role awaits me
A Don Diego or an Othello!
    ‘I can smell it. That fickle mistress fame will be mine! I’ll spare no expense, gilt chairs and electric lighting in the auditorium if you please! Who would dare question my luck? I shan’t be playing baccarat tonight, I’ll be playing the players, and it will be the performance of a lifetime!’
    He took a bundle of shares from a drawer, and studied one of them. An elegantly crossed pipe and cigar holder framed in wreaths of smoke a text, which he read out pompously:
     
    ‘Public Company
    AMBREX
    Statutes registered with Maître Piard, Notary of Paris,
    14 February 1893
    ISSUED CAPITAL 1,000,000 francs
    Divided into 2,000 shares of 500 francs each
    HEAD OFFICE: PARIS
    The holder is beneficiary of the share
    Paris, 30 April 1893
    Director      Director
     
    ‘Perfect,’ he concluded, with a smile. ‘The artist has surpassed himself.’
    He kissed the shares in the manner of a bashful lover.
    ‘You are ravishing, my beauties, decked out in all your finery. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar! Nothing reassures an investor more than seeing with his own eyes, in finely engraved copperplate, the gold mine that promises to make his nest egg grow. The gold mine in this case being these smoking accessories, which look every bit as authentic as a picture in a magazine – and people will believe anything they see in print.’
    He counted out twenty-five share certificates, stored the remainder in a safe from which he took an equal number of cigar holders, and placed the whole lot in a briefcase. Then, standing before a cheval glass, he knotted his tie and declaimed in a quavering voice worthy of a member of the Comédie-Française, ‘Never will a better use be found for paper than converting it into hard cash or potential dividends from shares in variform enterprises.’
    The adjective so pleased him that he rolled the ‘ r ’s in an exaggerated fashion, and continued, ‘…Variform enterprises such as the intensive farming of knobbly trees in an as yet unexplored region of our colonies or the transformation of fossilised resin into pipes! Prepare for your entrance, Leglantier my friend, the performance is about to begin!’
     
    The wide pavements of Boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle were thronging with people running errands or idling at tables outside cafés. Edmond Leglantier checked that the sandwich men lugging the advertisements for Théâtre de l’Échiquier, which was tucked away down a quiet street, were doing their job properly.
    He saw one of them parading back and forth in front of a building housing a general store. Another one was pacing up and down the esplanade outside the Théâtre du Gymnase, proud to be the focus of attention of the onlookers lolling on the