Brilliance (8 page)

‘In that case,’ he said, still grinning at her, ‘you had better look for accommodation for yourself and get whatever you need to make a mask.’ He took a piece of paper from his pocket on which were two addresses with street directions. ‘The cafe proprietor has written these down. So inquire at one or other of these places. Neither is what you are used to, and you’ll probably look down your nose at them, but I’ve been assured that both are clean and respectable.’

She took the slip of paper from him, realizing that although he had given her a last chance to travel on without him he had been fully prepared since their arrival in town to let her stay, even to gaining addresses for her. ‘Shall I take a second room for you, Mr Shaw?’

‘No, I’m having a garret room above the cafe. Later I’ll need to instruct you on how to handle all the sound effects. I’m going now to check that posters have been put up and to distribute leaflets. Come back here when you’ve secured a roof over your head for a week’s duration.’

‘What about the folding screen to stand by the piano?’

He shook his head. ‘Let’s take one step at a time. I have to find out first if you can carry out the tasks for which I am to pay you.’

There was still amusement in his voice, but she pretended not to notice and took her valise which he had unloaded for her. With her head high, she set off.

The first address was in a long row of tall houses that opened straight from the narrow street. Not liking the location, she went on to the next address to find it even less inviting, but this time the house had window boxes full of red geraniums that gave it a cheerful look. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A dark-haired woman, neatly dressed and in her early thirties, opened the door and looked Lisette up and down.

‘Yes?’ she queried suspiciously before Lisette could speak.

‘Madame Brousais? I need a room for a week. I’m with the magic lantern show that’s come to town.’

Immediately the woman relaxed and moved aside for Lisette to enter. ‘Oh, you’re an artiste as stage folk like to call themselves. That explains it! Your clothes are so fine that for a moment I thought you were one of those charity ladies from the church and they can be a pest. Not that any of them are ever as elegant as you. Follow me.’

The hall was narrow, but tidy, and there was a vase of fresh flowers on a ledge. Madame Brousais led the way up a narrow staircase. As Lisette followed she realized from what the woman had said that she was more conspicuous than she wished to be in her Paris clothes. That needed to be changed without delay. She had learned to embroider and sew at school, but since leaving there everything in her wardrobe had come from haute couture houses. In any case she would have no spare time to make anything for herself now.

‘Could you recommend a local seamstress?’ she asked. ‘I need a new dress or two.’

The woman looked back over her shoulder as they continued mounting the stairs. ‘There’s Madame Monclar two doors away. She’s quite good, but her skills couldn’t match anything you’re wearing now.’ They had reached the landing and the woman threw open a door. ‘This is the room and the privy is outside in the courtyard. I will do your laundry at a reasonable charge.’

The room, which was smaller than any servant’s room at the château, was as clean as everything else Lisette had observed on her way upstairs. It had a single bed, an iron washstand in the corner with a china ewer patterned in pink roses and a row of wooden pegs on the wall. The rent of the room with breakfast included was so low that Lisette almost offered more, but decided that would be out of character for someone working with a magic lantern show.

With payment settled in advance Lisette went at once to call on Madame Monclar, who was thin, tall and sharp-eyed. She agreed to make two cotton dresses, a skirt and a jacket within the week, saying that her daughter, also a seamstress, would help her finish everything in time. As Lisette was measured it was settled as to how much material would be needed for each garment.

Although at the château her disappearance was probably only just being discovered, nervousness made Lisette acutely aware of the glances that she was receiving as she swished along in her silk coat among the shoppers. To add to her embarrassment a wagon driver whistled at her as she went by.

At a draper’s shop she chose quite plain materials for her dresses before selecting a hat-veil and what she wanted for her mask. She found among some bargain offcuts a length of filmy black lace and another of black velvet. At the haberdashery counter she bought a sewing kit and a piece of fine canvas as stiffening for the mask, which would be lined with a scrap of silk she purchased very cheaply. In another shop she bought a shawl, more underwear, some extra stockings and a few other items she had forgotten to pack in her hurried departure. Lastly she purchased a larger, more cheap looking valise than her own to hold her new belongings and whatever else she might buy in the near future.

Back at her lodgings after delivering the fabrics to the seamstress, she sat on her bed and made her mask, attaching to it a fall of the delicate lace that would hide the lower half of her face. Well-pleased with the result, she returned to Daniel’s venue. He was outside, talking to the cafe owner, and he nodded that she should go in and up the stairs. In the upper room, bare of everything but chairs, she saw that he had already set up the lantern on its stand and also the screen. Putting on her mask and tying its ribbons at the back of her head, she went across to the lantern to study it with interest, having barely given it a glance when she was at the show with Philippe.

It was the tallest lantern she had ever seen, its polished wood gleaming and its brass-work highly burnished, and it was unusual in having three lenses spaced out one above another, each with a brass shutter and corresponding slots for slides at the sides. At the back were a curved pipe and a little door, which she opened to see the prongs within what was clearly a thickly insulated interior.

Daniel grinned at her as he entered the room. ‘I like the mask.’

Now that he had seen it she took it off. ‘This is a fine lantern, isn’t it? I’ve never seen one like it.’

He came to stand by her side. ‘I bought it from a Liverpool company and it is the best available anywhere.’ He took up a small cardboard box beside the lantern and opened it to reveal what looked like short, grey square candles. ‘These are called limelight illuminants.’ He stuck one on to a prong within the lantern. ‘It gives a full force of light to any lantern. It is said that one of these illuminants lit in Scotland can be seen as far away as Ireland.’ A smile touched the corners of his worldly mouth. ‘But who conducted the experiment I’ve no idea.’

‘Why are there three lenses, Mr Shaw?’ she asked with interest.

He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘I think it’s time we used Christian names, Lisette.’

‘Very well. Daniel,’ she replied.

Just for a moment his gaze held hers and then he turned back to the lantern. ‘The three lenses enable me to create certain effects with two or even three slides showing at once, such as varying the colours of a fire. I can also make one scene fade into another by opening and closing the shutters in turn. I’m quick enough to have the top slide ready before I fade out the bottom one.’ He moved towards the screen. ‘Now I’ll show you what you have to do.’

Behind the screen everything that would be needed was neatly arranged in rows on a folding table, which she had seen in his cart, and now a black curtain was hung at the front of it to hide the feet of the assistant. Patiently he showed her how to crunch up some special paper to simulate the devouring flames of a burning building and there was a hand-bell to ring for the arrival of the fire engine interspersed with the speedy clop of two coconut halves for horses’ hooves. Two wooden mushrooms, which she had only ever seen kept in a sewing-basket for darning holes in socks, were covered in padding and could be used to convey the sound of heavy footsteps. A tin whistle as well as another for police slides lay with a rattle, a pair of castanets, a motor car horn, a reed pipe and a small drum. Lastly he demonstrated how a metal sheet could be shaken to convey thunder. She tried out everything before he gave a nod.

‘Now I’ll run through some slides,’ he said, ‘keeping to the programme that you’ve already seen, and we’ll see how you manage.’ He went to pull curtains above the two windows to darken the hall before taking his place behind the lantern.

The glow of the slides through the screen gave her plenty of light to see everything laid out before her. She soon realized that speed was essential. At first she made mistakes and was sometimes too slow, but he was patient and did not shout out in exasperation as she had feared. As the rehearsal went on she became more proficient, but it was a relief when he called a halt.

‘You’ve done well,’ he said approvingly. ‘Normally I have to interview several people before I find one alert enough to cope with what I want. Sometimes I have to make do with very few sound effects on the first night. We’ll go into the cafe now and have a meal. Then we’ll rehearse again.’

She ate well, being hungry, and over the meal she asked him how he had learned to speak her language as if he were French born. He explained, adding that the holidays he had spent with his grandparents during school holidays had given him a love of France as great as that he felt for the country of his birth.

‘I suppose that explains why you’re touring here?’ she questioned.

He shook his head. ‘No, it’s out of consideration for my one and only employer, an English photographer named Friese-Green. I grew up fascinated by photography and I went to work for him as an apprentice. I knew he was conducting experiments in some advanced work and I wanted to learn everything he had to teach me.’

‘Did you?’

‘Well, first of all in taking and developing photographs of babies, family groups, wedding couples and so forth.’ He refilled her wineglass and then his own. ‘But best of all for me, he was working on his invention for a camera that would take moving pictures and he allowed me to work with him.’

‘Moving pictures!’ she repeated incredulously. ‘Could that ever be?’

‘They are on the way.’

‘But how is it possible?’ she persisted.

‘It’s simply that photographs are taken consecutively on long strips, which are being made of celluloid now, and when projected at speed through a lens on to a screen there is an illusion of movement.’

‘That’s fantastic!’ she exclaimed admiringly.

He shrugged. ‘There are still many problems to overcome, such as jerking, blurring and so forth. There are various prototypes appearing all the time, but none of them has been successful yet, although I read that an American named Edison has been making considerable progress with his invention, which he is calling his kinetoscope. But it is yet to be seen and tried. I have a small apartment in Paris where I’ve made one room into my workshop. That’s where I’ve been working on my own moving picture camera all winter. My summer tours finance me through the winter months.’

‘So you came to France because you didn’t want to compete with your former employer?’

‘That’s right. It would not have been fair to remain on his ground. In any case, my ideas differed from his and I wanted to go my own way with my invention. We parted on good terms. He’s a brilliant man and I’m sure that eventually he will reach his ultimate aim of gaining colour too.’

‘Do you mean hand-tinted moving pictures like the slides?’

‘No, capturing colour as the photographs are taken. But that is still over the horizon even for Friese-Greene.’

‘Nevertheless, I can see you believe it will come one day.’ Raising her glass, she held it towards him in a toast. ‘But in the meantime, here’s to your success!’

He smiled, taking up his glass. ‘And to yours this evening!’

They returned to the room upstairs to rehearse again. This time she felt more confident and only made two mistakes. After that she rearranged several of the items to be quicker to hand when she needed them. As time for the performance drew near she put on her mask and waited out of sight behind the screen. Daniel unlocked the entrance and returned upstairs to sell tickets as those who had been lining up began to arrive. At first it was a trickle, but soon the room was full. Daniel made his customary announcement and she stood ready for the show to commence.

All went well. Several times she was too late with the sound effects and wisely let them go by. People laughed when she tooted the motor horn at exactly the right moment, but laughed again for the wrong reason when she blew a musical whistle in error while the policeman was in pursuit of a criminal. She made a mistake again, causing more mirth, when she gave a young woman heavy footsteps instead of making a tap-tap sound for her heels. When the performance came to an end with enthusiastic applause she sank down on to her chair, realizing how tense she had been the whole time and thankful that it was over.

‘So, Lisette?’ Daniel said with a raised eyebrow when the last person had gone.

‘I wasn’t perfect,’ she exclaimed apologetically. ‘Far from it!’

He grinned. ‘I didn’t expect you to be. Worse blunders have been made by others before you. Come now. I’ll walk you to your lodgings.’

There she slept almost at once on the thought that she would do better at the two performances on the morrow.

L
isette became increasingly competent with the sound effects as the days went by. When by public demand the number of daily shows was increased to three and, on the last two nights, to four, she was no longer making any mistakes or missing any cues. Yet she was so tired after the final performance that she often fell asleep as soon as she got into bed or had taken her seat on the cart if they were moving on. It would be morning before she awoke.

It was the beginning of a routine to which she soon became accustomed. Two and then three weeks went by. As full summer arrived she wore one or other of her new cotton dresses, having packed away all she had worn on the night of her flight. She had also put away her fashionable hat, wearing instead a straw one, which she had bought in a marketplace to shade her face from the sun. Always she was conscious of the need never to draw attention to herself, except when confidently masked at the performances.