eight
o'clock in the evening
He was the Adonis , the Apollo , the Don Juan , the Irresistible of the Tournée . Fled truculent bass and haughty tenor before him ; from diva to moustachioed contralto in the chorus , all the ladies breathlessly watched for the fall of his handkerchief ; he was recognized , in fact , as a devil of a fellow . But in spite of these triumphs , the manipulation of the drum , kettle-drum , triangle , cymbals , castagnettes and tambourine , which at first had given him intense and childish delight , at last became invested with a mechanical monotony that almost drove him mad . All day long the thought of the ill-lit corner , on the extreme right of the orchestra , garnished with the accursed instruments of noise to which duty would compel him at eight o'clock in the evening hung over him like a hideous doom . Sweet singers of the female sex were powerless to console . He passed them by , and haughty tenor and swaggering basso again took heart of grace . '' _ Mais , mon Dieu , c'est le métier !