ybody
else in the world. _Item_, she knows nothing, and she has a turn
for settling everything out of hand. _Item_, you must applaud her
decisions with feet and hands, jump for joy, and scream with
admiration:--"How fine that is, how delicate, well said, subtly
seen, singularly felt! Where do women get that? Without study, by
mere force of instinct, and pure light of nature! That is really
like a miracle! And then they want us to believe that experience,
study, reflection, education, have anything to do with the
matter!..." And other fooleries to match, and tears and tears of
joy; ten times a day to kneel down, one knee bent in front of the
other, the other leg drawn back, the arms extended towards the
goddess, to seek one's desire in her eyes, to hang on her lips, to
wait for her command, and then start off like a flash of lightning.
Where is the man who would subject himself to play such a part, if
it is not the wretch, who finds there two or three times a week the
wherewithal to still the tribulation of his inner parts?

_I._--I should never have thought you were so fastidious.

_He._--I am not. In the beginning I watched the others, and I did
as they did, even rather better, because I am more frankly
impudent, a better comedian, hungrier, and better off for lungs. I
descend apparently in a direct line from the famous Stentor....

[And to give me a just idea of the force of his organ, he set off
laughing, with violence enough to break the windows of the
coffee-house, and to interrupt the chess-players.]

_I._--But what is the good of this talent?

_He._--You cannot guess?

_I._--No; I am rather slow.

_He._--Suppose the debate opened, and victory uncertain; I get up,
and, displaying my thunder, I say: "That is as mademoiselle
asserts.... That is worth calling a judgment. There is genius in
the expression." But one must not always approve in the same
manner; one would be monotonous, and seem insincere, and become
insipid. You only escape that by judgment and resource; you must
know how to prepare and place your major and most peremptory tones,
to seize the occasion and the moment. When, for instance, there is
a difference in feeling, and the debate has risen to its last
degree of violence, and you have ceased to listen to one ano