s manuscript, "here are some verses that I think are
superb, and I am going to recite them as soon as I can, at some
entertainment or benefit. Read them and give us your opinion of them. I
present their author to you, Monsieur Amedee Violette. Amedee, I present
you to Monsieur Paul Sillery."

All the heads of hair, framing young and amiable faces, turned curiously
toward the newcomer, whom Paul Sillery courteously invited to be seated,
with the established formula, "What will you take?" Then he began to read
the lines that the comedian had given him.

Amedee, seated on the edge of his chair, was distracted with timidity,
for Paul Sillery already enjoyed a certain reputation as a rising poet,
and had established a small literary sheet called La Guepe, which
published upon its first page caricatures of celebrated men with large
heads and little bodies, and Amedee had read in it some of Paul's poems,
full of impertinence and charm. An author whose work had been published!
The editor of a journal! The idea was stunning to poor innocent Violette,
who was not aware then that La Guepe could not claim forty subscribers.
He considered Sillery something wonderful, and waited with a beating
heart for the verdict of so formidable a judge. At the end of a few
moments Sillery said, without raising his eyes from the manuscript:

"Here are some fine verses!"

A flood of delight filled the heart of the poet from the Faubourg
St.-Jacques.

As soon as he had finished his reading, Paul arose from his seat, and,
extending both hands over the carafes and glasses to Amedee, said,
enthusiastically:

"Let me shake hands with you! Your description of the battle-scene is
astonishing! It is admirable! It is as clear and precise as Merimee, and
it has all the color and imagination that he lacks to make him a poet. It
is something absolutely new. My dear Monsieur Violette, I congratulate
you with all my heart! I can not ask you for this beautiful poem for La
Guepe that Jocquelet is so fortunate as to have to recite, and of which I
hope he will make a success. But I beg of you, as a great favor, to let
me have some verses for my paper; they will be, I am sure, as good as
these, if not better. To be sure, I forgot to tell you that we shall not
be able to pay you for the copy, as La Guepe does not prosper; I will
even admit that it only stands on one leg. In order to make it appear for
a few months longer, I have recently been obliged to go to a