And why should I go in search of compliments only to pull the string of a shower-bath of horrid looks from some disillusioned female ?" "Then the true poet," said La Briere, "ought to remain hidden, like God, in the centre of his worlds, and be only seen in his own creations." "Glory would cost too dear in that case," answered Canalis.

"There is some good in life.

As for that letter," he added, taking a cup of tea, "I assure you that when a noble and beautiful woman loves a poet she does not hide in the corner boxes, like a duchess in love with an actor; she feels that her beauty, her fortune, her name are protection enough, and she dares to say openly, like an epic poem: 'I am the nymph Calypso, enamored of Telemachus.' Mystery and feigned names are the resources of little minds.

For my part I no longer answer masks--" "I should love a woman who came to seek me," cried La Briere.

"To all you say I reply, my dear Canalis, that it cannot be an ordinary girl who aspires to a distinguished man; such a girl has too little trust, too much vanity; she is too faint-hearted.