close of the day?
    »I hesitate,« said he, »whether at the very beginning, before many persons
are come, and when your aspiring nature will not be gratified by a large
audience, or quite at the close, when everybody is tired, and only a jaded and
worn-out attention will be at your service.«
    »Que vous êtes dur, monsieur!« I said, affecting dejection.
    »One ought to be dur with you. You are one of those beings who must be kept
down. I know you! I know you! Other people in this house see you pass, and think
that a colourless shadow has gone by. As for me, I scrutinized your face once,
and it sufficed.«
    »You are satisfied that you understand me?«
    Without answering directly, he went on, »Were 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 altogether: to have no English examination,
eh?«
    »If madame consents; I consent.«
    »Heartily?«
    »Very heartily.«
    He smoked his cigar in silence. He turned suddenly.
    »Donnez-moi la main,« said he, and the spite and jealousy melted out of his
face, and a generous kindliness shone there instead.
    »Come, we will not be rivals, we will be friends;« he pursued. »The
examination shall take place, and I will choose a good moment