ngle between the fingers, and surrounded the
head with a perfect halo of knives, and the neck with a collar, from
which nobody could have extricated himself without cutting his carotid
artery, while to increase the difficulty, the old fellow went through
the performance without seeing, his whole face being covered with a
close mask of thick oil-cloth.

Naturally, like other great artists, he was not understood by the crowd,
who confounded him with vulgar tricksters, and his mask only appeared to
them a trick the more, and a very common trick into the bargain. "He
must think us very stupid," they said. "How could he possibly aim
without having his eyes open?" And they thought there must be
imperceptible holes in the oil-cloth, a sort of lattice work concealed
in the material. It was useless for him to allow the public to examine
the mask for themselves before the exhibition began. It was all very
well that they could not discover any trick, but they were only all the
more convinced that they were being tricked. Did not the people know
that they ought to be tricked?

I had recognized a great artist in the old mountebank, and I was quite
sure that he was altogether incapable of any trickery, and I told him
so, while expressing my admiration to him; and he had been touched, both
by my admiration, and above all by the justice I had done him. Thus we
became good friends, and he explained to me, very modestly, the real
trick which the crowd cannot understand, the eternal trick compromised
in these simple words: "To be gifted by nature, and to practice every
day for long, long years."

He had been especially struck by the certainty which expressed, that any
trickery must become impossible to him. "Yes," he said to me; "quite
impossible! Impossible to a degree which you cannot imagine. If I were
to tell you! But where would be the use?"

His face clouded over, and his eyes filled with tears, but I did not
venture to force myself into his confidence. My looks, however, were no
doubt not so discreet as my silence, and begged him to speak, and so he
responded to their mute appeal. "After all," he said: "why should I not
tell you about it? You will understand me." And he added, with a look of
sudden ferocity: "She understood it at any rate!" "Who?" I asked. "My
unfaithful wife," he replied. "Ah! Monsieur, what an abominable creature
she was, if you only knew! Yes, she understood it too well, too well,
and that is why I hate her