._--But sublime as you may be, some one else may replace you.

_He._--Hardly.

_I._--Hardly, it is true. Still I would go with that lacklustre
face, those haggard eyes, that open breast, that tumbled hair, in
that downright tragic state in which you are now. I would throw
myself at the feet of the divinity, and without rising I would say
with a low and sobbing voice: "Forgive me, madam! Forgive me! I am
the vilest of creatures. It was only one unfortunate moment, for
you know I am not subject to common sense, and I promise you, I
will never have it again so long as I live."

[The diverting part of it was that, while I discoursed to him in
this way, he executed it pantomimically, and threw himself on the
ground; with his eyes fixed on the earth, he seemed to hold between
his two hands the tip of a slipper, he wept, he sobbed, he cried:
"Yes, my queen, yes, I promise, I never will, so long as I live, so
long as ever I live...." Then recovering himself abruptly, he went
on in a serious and deliberate tone:]

_He._--Yes, you are right; I see it is the best. Yet to go and
humiliate one's self before a hussy, cry for mercy at the feet of a
little actress with the hisses of the pit for ever in her ears! I,
Rameau, son of Rameau, the apothecary of Dijon, who is a good man
and never yet bent his knee to a creature in the world! I, Rameau,
who have composed pieces for the piano that nobody plays, but which
will perhaps be the only pieces ever to reach posterity, and
posterity will play them--I, I, must go! Stay, sir, it cannot be
[and striking his right hand on his breast, he went on:] I feel
here something that rises and tells me: Never, Rameau, never. There
must be a certain dignity attached to human nature that nothing can
stifle; it awakes _a propos des bottes_; you cannot explain it; for
there are other days when it would cost me not a pang to be as vile
as you like, and for a halfpenny there is nothing too dirty for me
to do.

_I._--Then if the expedient I have suggested to you is not to your
taste, have courage enough to remain a beggar.

_He._--'Tis hard being a beggar, while there are so many rich
fools at whose expense one can live. And the contempt for one's
self, it is insupportable.

_I._--Do you know that sentiment?

_He