as Ambrose in the stage play "A Week End". Lucille is a French woman who has a passion for blond men and is Ambrose's love interest. Arnaud was the daughter of Charles Leon Arnaud and his wife Antoinette (née Montegut). She was brought up in Paris and entered the
Paris Conservatoire aged 9, studying piano under
Alphonse Duvernoy and other teachers. In 1911 she decided to try the stage instead of the concert hall and obtained an engagement at London's
Adelphi Theatre as understudy to
Elsie Spain in the role of Princess Mathilde in
The Quaker Girl, first going on stage in that role on 7 August 1911. She next played the leading role of Suzanne in the musical
The Girl in the Taxi (1912), earning popularity with her vivacity and charming French accent. One reviewer wrote: "Arnaud is as clever as her ways are charming, and her voice is beautiful". This was followed by roles in more musical comedies, farces and operettas, including as Noisette in ''Mam'selle Tralala
in 1914 (revived the following year as Oh! Be Careful''), two revivals of "The Girl in the Taxi" (in 1913 and 1915), in
Harry Grattan's
Odds and Ends (1914),
Excuse Me! (1915), as Lucille in
A Week-End (1918), and Phrynette in ''L'Enfant Prodigue
, in which she also played the piano. She also had a lead in Kissing Time'' (1919). in Guildford is named in her honour After this, an operation damaged her
vocal cords, and so she switched from musicals to plays, beginning with the role of Louise Allington in the farce
Tons of Money, which ran for nearly two years at the
Shaftesbury Theatre from 1922. Arnaud's likeness was drawn in caricature by
Alex Gard for
Sardi's, the New York City theatre district restaurant. The picture is now part of the collection of the
New York Public Library. She continued to act on stage well into the 1950s. In 1958 she appeared in the West End with
Jack Hulbert in
Ronald Millar's
The Big Tickle. She still occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career, for example, with the
Hallé Orchestra under Sir
John Barbirolli in
Manchester in 1948. She was also the soloist at the premiere of
Franz Reizenstein's pastiche
Concerto Popolare at the 1956
Hoffnung Festival (having been chosen after
Eileen Joyce declined). ==Personal life ==