in quiet.

Mariette, or Marie, as she was usually called, was a thoroughly good
partner for Jasmin. Though not by any means a highly educated woman, she
felt the elevating effects of poetry even on herself. She influenced her
husband's mind through her practical wisdom and good sense, while he in
his turn influenced hers by elevating her soul and intellect.

Jasmin, while he was labouring over some song or verse, found it
necessary to recite it to some one near him, but mostly to his wife. He
wandered with her along the banks of the Garonne, and while he recited,
she listened with bated breath. She could even venture to correct him;
for she knew, better than he did, the ordinary Gascon dialect. She often
found for him the true word for the picture which he desired to present
to his reader. Though Jasmin was always thankful for her help, he did
not abandon his own words without some little contention. He had worked
out the subject in his mind, and any new word, or mode of description,
might interrupt the beauty of the verses.

When he at length recognised the justice of her criticism, he would say,
"Marie, you are right; and I will again think over the subject, and make
it fit more completely into the Gascon idiom." In certain cases passages
were suppressed; in others they were considerably altered.

When Jasmin, after much labour and correction, had finished his poem, he
would call about him his intimate friends, and recite the poem to them.
He had no objection to the most thorough criticism, by his wife as well
as by his friends. When the poem was long and elaborate, the auditors
sometimes began to yawn. Then the wife stepped in and said: "Jasmin, you
must stop; leave the remainder of the poem for another day." Thus the
recital ceased for the time.

The people of Agen entertained a lively sympathy for their poet. Even
those who might to a certain extent depreciate his talent, did every
justice to the nobility of his character. Perhaps some might envy the
position of a man who had risen from the ranks and secured the esteem of
men of fortune and even of the leaders of literary opinion. Jasmin, like
every person envied or perhaps detracted, had his hours of depression.
But the strong soul of his wife in these hours came to his relief, and
assuaged the spirit of the man and the poet.

Jasmin was at one time on the point of abandoning verse-making. Yet he
was encouraged to proceed by the demands which were made for h