n incur a process of
law? If you will permit me, I will tell you. The _Revue de Paris_, whose
reading committee had read the work in its entirety, for the manuscript
was sent long before it was published, evidently found nothing to
criticise. When it came time to print the copy of December 1st, 1856,
one of the directors of the _Revue_ became affrighted at the scene in
the cab. He said: "This is not conventional, we must suppress it."
Flaubert was offended by the suppression. He was not willing that it
should be made unless a note to that effect were placed at the bottom of
the page. It was he who exacted the note. It is he who, on account of
his self-respect as an author, neither wishing to have his work
mutilated nor, on the other hand wishing to make trouble for the
_Revue_, said: "You may suppress it if it seems best to you, but you
will state that you have suppressed something." And they agreed upon
the following note:

"The directors have seen the necessity of suppressing a passage here
which did not seem fitting to the _Revue de Paris_; we give notice of it
to the author."

Here is the suppressed passage which I am going to read to you. We have
only a proof, which we had great difficulty in procuring. The first part
has not a single correction; one word is corrected in the second part.

"'Where to, sir?' asked the coachman.

"'Where you like,' said Leon, forcing Emma into the cab.

"And the lumbering machine set out. It went down the Rue Grand-Pont,
crossed the Place des Arts, the Quai Napoleon, the Pont Neuf, and
stopped short before the statue of Pierre Corneille.

"'Go on,' cried a voice that came from within.

"The cab went on again, and as soon as it reached the Carrefour
Lafayette, set off down-hill, and entered the station at a gallop.

"'No, straight on!' cried the same voice.

"The cab came out by the gate, and soon having reached the Cours,
trotted quietly beneath the elm-trees. The coachman wiped his brow, put
his leather hat between his knees, and drove his carriage beyond the
side alley by the meadow to the margin of the waters.

"It went along by the river, along the towing-path paved with sharp
pebbles, and for a long while in the direction of Oyssel, beyond the
isles.

"But suddenly it turned with a dash across Quatre-mares, Sotteville, La
Grande-Chaussee, the Rue d'Elbeuf, and made its third halt in front of
the Jardin des Plantes.

"'Get on, will you?' cried the voice more furious