That is the profit side of the account; you say not a word
of the cost of it all. First, if there was a whisper of a new piece
(no matter how bad the weather), one had to ransack all the garrets
in Paris, until one had found the author; then to get a reading of
the play, and adroitly to insinuate that there was a part in it
which would be rendered in a superior manner by a certain person of
my acquaintance.--"And by whom, if you please?"--"By whom? a pretty
question! There are graces, finesse, elegance."--"Ah, you mean
Mademoiselle Dangeville? Perhaps you know her?"--"Yes, a little;
but 'tis not she."--"Who is it, then?"--I whispered the name very
low. "She?"--"Yes, she," I repeated with some shame, for sometimes
I do feel a touch of shame; and at this name you should have seen
how long the poet's face grew, if indeed he did not burst out
laughing in my face. Still, whether he would or not, I was bound to
take my man to dine; and he, being naturally afraid of pledging
himself, drew back, and tried to say "No, thank you." You should
have seen how I was treated, if I did not succeed in my
negotiation! I was a blockhead, a fool, a rascal; I was not good
for a single thing; I was not worth the glass of water which they
gave me to drink. It was still worse at their performance, when I
had to go intrepidly amid the cries of a public that has a good
judgment of its own, whatever may be said about it, and make my
solitary clap of the hand audible, draw every eye to me, and
sometimes save the actress from hisses, and hear people murmur
around me--"He is one of the valets in disguise belonging to the
man who.... Will that knave be quiet?" They do not know what brings
a man to that; they think it is stupidity, but there is one motive
that excuses anything.

_I._--Even the infraction of the civil laws.

_He._--At length, however, I became known, and people used to say:
"Oh, it is Rameau!" My resource was to throw out some words of
irony to save my solitary applause from ridicule, by making them
interpret it in an opposite sense.

Now agree that one must have a mighty interest to make one thus
brave the assembled public, and that each of these pieces of hard
labour was worth more than a paltry crown? And then at home there
was a pack of dogs to tend, and