ther,
and all speak at the same time, you ought to have your place at the
corner of the room which is farthest removed from the field of
battle, to have prepared the way for your explosion by a long
silence, and then suddenly to fall like a thunder-clap over the
very midst of the combatants. Nobody possesses this art as I do.
But where I am truly surprising is in the opposite way--I have low
tones that I accompany with a smile, and an infinite variety of
approving tricks of face; nose, lips, brow, eyes, all make play; I
have a suppleness of reins, a manner of twisting the spine, of
shrugging the shoulders, extending the fingers, inclining the head,
closing the eyes, and throwing myself into a state of stupefaction,
as if I had heard a divine angelic voice come down from heaven;
that is what flatters. I do not know whether you seize rightly all
the energy of that last attitude. I did not invent it, but nobody
has ever surpassed me in its execution. Behold, behold!

_I._--Truly, it is unique.

_He._--Think you there is a woman's brain that could stand that?

_I._--It must be admitted that you have carried the talent of
playing the madman, and of self-debasement, as far as it can
possibly be carried.

_He._--Try as hard as they will, they will never touch me--not the
best of them. Palissot, for instance, will never be more than a
good learner. But if this part is amusing at first, and if you have
some relish in inwardly mocking at the folly of the people whom you
are intoxicating, in the long run that ceases to be exciting, and
then after a certain number of discoveries one is obliged to repeat
one's self. Wit and art have their limits. 'Tis only God Almighty
and some rare geniuses, for whom the career widens as they advance.

_I._--With this precious enthusiasm for fine things, and this
facility of genius of yours, is it possible that you have invented
nothing?

_He._--Pardon me; for instance, that admiring attitude of the back,
of which I spoke to you; I regard it as my own, though envy may
contest my claim. I daresay it has been employed before: but who
has felt how convenient it was for laughing in one's sleeve at the
ass for whom one was dying of admiration! I have more than a
hundred ways of opening fire on a girl under the very