ances, in
hopes that somebody would say, 'You've brought something good, haven't
you, dear Leander?' How you privately implored us all, for God's sake,
to take no notice whatever of this menacing rustling, but to hold our
tongues. Remember how you used to liken old Leander--with a tragedy
always in his breast pocket, always armed and eager for the fray--to
Meros creeping to slay the tyrant, with a dagger in his breast; how
once, when you were obliged to ask him to dinner, he came with a great
fat manuscript in his hand, so that our hearts sunk within us; how he
then announced, with the sweetest smiles, that he could only stay for
an hour or so, because he had promised to go to Madame So-and-so's to
tea, and to read her his last epic poem in twelve cantos; how we then
breathed freely again, like men relieved from a terrible burden;
and when he went away all cried, with one voice, 'Oh, poor Madame
So-and-so!--what an unfortunate woman!'"

"Stop, stop, Ottmar," said Lothair; "what you say is all true enough,
of course, but nothing of that sort could take place amongst Serapion
Brethren. We form a strongly organized opposition to everything that is
not in harmony with our fundamental principle, and I would give odds
that Leander conforms to our rule."

"Don't imagine anything of the kind, dear Lothair," said Ottmar.
"Leander has a fault which many conceited writers have in common with
him--he won't listen; and, just for that reason, he always wants to be
the person who reads or speaks. He would always be trying to occupy the
whole of our evenings with his own interminable compositions; he would
take our efforts to obviate this in the worst possible part, and,
consequently, mar the whole of our enjoyment: he even spoke to-day of
works to be undertaken in common; and with that idea in his head he
would torture us terribly."

"That is a sort of thing which never answers," said Cyprian. "It
doesn't seem practicable for several people to write a work together;
it would require such absolute similarity of mental disposition, such
depth of insight, and such identity of the power to grasp ideas as they
suggest and succeed one another, even if a plot were fully determined
on in concert. I say this from experience, although of course there are
some instances to the contrary."

"At the same time," said Cyprian, "sympathetically-minded friends often
give each other valuable hints and suggestions, which lead to the
production of wo