Henri only came to the last rehearsals. He knew the play and was ready
with his part in a week. _The Caprice_ was a very short piece for the
_soirée_, and it was decided to finish up with something comic. Two or
three short plays given at the Palais Royal were tried, but given up as
there were not enough actors, and finally a very nonsensical thing was
chosen that was just then having a great run in one of the smaller
theatres, and which Henri had insisted on in spite of Mlle. Bourjot's
apparently groundless objection to it. Considering her usual timidity,
every one was surprised at her obstinacy on this point; but it seemed,
since Henri had been there, as if she were not quite herself. Renée
fancied at times that Noémi was not the same with her now, and that her
friendship had cooled. She was surprised to see a spirit of
contradiction in her which she had never known before, and she was quite
hurt at Noémi's manner to her brother. She was very cool with him, and
treated him with a shade of disdain which bordered on contempt. Henri
was always polite, attentive, and ready to oblige, but nothing more. In
all the scenes in which he and Noémi acted together he was so reserved,
so correct, and indeed so circumspect, that Renée, who feared that the
coldness of his acting would spoil the play, joked him about it.
"Pooh!" he answered, "I'm like the great actors. I'm keeping my effects
for the first night."