you not gratified when you succeeded in that vaudeville? I watched you, and saw a passionate ardour for triumph in your physiognomy. "What fire shot into the glance! Not mere light, but flame: je me tins pour averti."
"What feeling I had on that occasion, monsieur—and pardon me, if I say, you immensely exaggerate both its quality and quantity—was quite abstract. I did not care for the vaudeville. I hated the part you assigned me. I had not the slightest sympathy with the audience below the stage. They are good people, doubtless, but do I know them? Are they anything to me? Can I care for being brought before their view again to-morrow? Will the examination be anything but a task to me—a task I wish well over?"
"Shall I take it out of your hands?"
"With all my heart; if you do not fear failure."
"But I should fail. I only know three phrases of English, and a few words: par exemple, de sonn, de mone, de stare—est ce bien dit? My opinion is that it would be better to give up the thing altother: to have no English examination, eh?"
"If madame consents; I consent."
"Heartily?"
