he drawing-room, a brilliantly lighted room in green, which
I can see now vividly before me.

How I managed to get up those steps, how I made my entry, and how I
presented myself, I can not now remember. A footman announced my name,
but this name, which he mumbled, produced no effect on the brilliant
assembly. I can only recollect hearing a woman's voice say: "So much
the better, here is another dancer." It appears they were short of
dancers; but what an entry for a poet!

Startled and humiliated, I tried to lose myself among the crowd. How
can I describe my dismay, when, a moment later, another mistake arose?
My long hair, my dark and somber looks excited general curiosity. I
heard them whispering near me: "Who is it? Do look," and they laughed.
At last some one said:

"It is the Wallachian Prince!"

"The Wallachian Prince? Oh yes, very likely."

I suppose that a Wallachian prince had been expected that evening. My
rank being thus settled for me, I was left in peace. But for all that,
you can not imagine how heavily my usurped crown weighed upon me all
that evening. First a dancing man! then a Wallachian prince! Could not
these good people see my lyre?

Fortunately for me, a startling piece of news flying from mouth to
mouth, spread rapidly through the ballroom, casting into oblivion both
the dancer and the Wallachian prince. Marriage was at that time much
the fashion among the feminine portion of the Comedie company, and it
was generally at Augustine Brohan's Wednesday receptions, where all
the choicest talents of journalism, together with bankers and high
government officials gathered round the lovely members or associates
of the Francais, that the foundations were laid of most of these
romantic unions....

At last comparative calm was restored and the quadrilles began. I
danced. I was obliged to do so. I danced moreover somewhat badly for a
Wallachian prince. The quadrille once ended, I became stationary;
foolishly held back by my short sight--too shy to sport an eyeglass,
too much of a poet to wear spectacles, and dreading lest, at the
slightest movement, I should bruise my knee against the corner of some
piece of furniture, or plunge my nose into the trimming of a bodice.
Soon hunger and thirst interfered in the matter; but for a kingdom I
should never have dared to approach the buffet with all the rest of
the world. I anxiously watched for the moment when it should be
deserted; and while waiting, I joine