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.