On the stage, some women are always twenty, others are always thirty, others again are always sixty.

As for you, Mademoiselle Nanteuil, you will always be eighteen, and you will always be an _ingenue_." "I am quite content with my work," replied Nanteuil, "but you cannot expect me to play all _ingenues_ with the same pleasure.

There is one part, for example, which I long to play, and that is Agnes in _L'Ecole des femmes_." At the mere mention of the name of Agnes, the doctor murmured delightedly from among his cushions: "Mes yeux ont-ils du mal pour en donner au monde ?" "Agnes, that's a part if you like!" exclaimed Nanteuil.

"I have asked Pradel to give it me." Pradel, the manager of the theatre, was an ex-comedian, a wideawake, genial fellow, who had got rid of his illusions and nourished no exaggerated hopes.

He loved peace, books and women.