to "give the reply" (_i.e._ to take the other characters in the scene) are
chosen from among the ranks of the pupil's fellow-competitors. Lots are
drawn to decide the place that each one is to occupy on the programme, the
first place and the last being considered the least desirable. Printed
bills are distributed among the audience giving a list of the competitors,
with the names of the plays from which they have chosen scenes, and
(horrible innovation for the lady pupils!) the age of each one as well.

The competition is opened by M. Levanz, a young man of thirty, who took a
second prize last year, and who has chosen the closet-scene from _Hamlet_
(the translation of the elder Dumas) as his _cheval de bataille_. He has a
marked Germanic countenance, decidedly the reverse of handsome, yet mobile
and expressive: his voice is good, his figure tall and manly. He has
evidently seen Rossi in Hamlet, and models his conception of the character
on that grand impersonation. Next comes M. Bregaint in a scene from
_Andromaque:_ he is so bad, so _very_ bad, that the audience are moved to
sudden outbursts of hilarity by his grand tragic points. He is succeeded by
a boy of sixteen, tall and graceful, with a fine tragic face of the heroic
Kemble mould, and great blue-gray eyes that dilate or contract beneath the
impulses of the moment--a born actor from head to foot. He fairly thrills
the audience in the great scene of the duke de Nemours from _Louis XI_.
This youth, M. Guitry, is undoubtedly, if his life be spared, the coming
tragedian of the French stage. Then we have the first one of the lady
competitors, Mademoiselle Edet, a tall, awkward girl of eighteen, with a
flat face and Chinese-like features, dressed up in a gown of cream-yellow
foulard trimmed with wide fringe and made with a loose jacket, whereon the
fringes wave wildly in the air as she flings her arms around in the tragic
love-making of Phedre. Two or three others of moderate merit succeed, and
then comes Mademoiselle Jullien, who gives the great scene of Roxane in
_Bajazet_ with so much intelligence of intonation and grace of gesture that
the audience are moved to sudden applause. She is rather too short and of
too delicate a physique for tragedy, but her face is expressive, her eyes
fine, and there are intellect and talent in every tone and movement. She is
nearly twenty-nine years of age, so has not much time to waste if she is to
make her mark in her profession. Last o