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306 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 altotheraltogether [sic]: to have no English examination, eh?"

"If madame consents; I consent."

"Heartily?"