"What is the meaning of all this?" asked the Emperor Nicholas.
"It is M. Vivier blowing his soap bubbles," replied the aide-de-camp in
attendance.
"What! Vivier, the French musician, who played the horn so wonderfully
the other night at the Winter Palace, and afterwards entertained us so
much with his conversation?"
"The same, sire."
"Go to him, then, and tell him that I should be glad if he would choose
some other time for his soap-bubble performances. How wonderful they
are!"
The aide-de-camp forced his way through the crowd, went upstairs to
Vivier's apartments, and told him that the Emperor desired him not to
give his exhibition of soap bubbles at half-past three in the afternoon,
that being the time when his Majesty usually went for a drive.
Vivier took out a pocket-book, consulted it carefully, and, turning to
the aide-de-camp, said with the utmost gravity, "That is the only hour I
have disengaged."
Vivier, meanwhile, had had his joke; and his exhibition of soap bubbles,
or rather of gum-and-soap balloons, was now discontinued.
The horn-playing performance to which the Emperor Nicholas had made
reference was marked by one strange, marvellous, almost inexplicable
peculiarity. The player sounded on his instrument, simultaneously, a
chord of four notes.
Pages:
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434