btless it would suit capitally."

"Ah! you are of my opinion?"

"So much so, that I have asked you to write this very prologue."

"You asked _me_ to write it?"

"Yes, you, and on your refusal begged you to ask Pelisson, who is
engaged upon it at this moment."

"Ah! that is what Pelisson is doing, then? I'faith, my dear Moliere, you
are indeed often right."

"When?"

"When you call me absent-minded. It is a monstrous defect; I will cure
myself of it, and do your prologue for you."

"But inasmuch as Pelisson is about it!--"

"Ah, true, miserable rascal that I am! Loret was indeed right in saying
I was a poor creature."

"It was not Loret who said so, my friend."

"Well, then, whoever said so, 'tis the same to me! And so your
_divertissement_ is called the 'Facheux?' Well, can you make _heureux_
rhyme with _facheux?_"

"If obliged, yes."

"And even with _capriceux_."

"Oh, no, no."

"It would be hazardous, and yet why so?"

"There is too great a difference in the cadences."

"I was fancying," said La Fontaine, leaving Moliere for Loret--"I was
fancying--"

"What were you fancying?" said Loret, in the middle of a sentence. "Make
haste."

"You are writing the prologue to the 'Facheux,' are you not?"

"No! _mordieu!_ it is Pelisson."

"Ah, Pelisson," cried La Fontaine, going over to him, "I was fancying,"
he continued, "that the nymph of Vaux--"

"Ah, beautiful!" cried Loret. "The nymph of Vaux! thank you, La
Fontaine; you have just given me the two concluding verses of my paper."

"Well, if you can rhyme so well, La Fontaine," said Pelisson, "tell me
now in what way you would begin my prologue?"

"I should say, for instance, 'Oh! nymph, who--' After 'who' I should
place a verb in the second person singular of the present indicative;
and should go on thus: 'this grot profound.'"

"But the verb, the verb?" asked Pelisson.

"To admire the greatest king of all kings round," continued La Fontaine.

"But the verb, the verb," obstinately insisted Pelisson. "This second
person singular of the present indicative?"

"Well, then; quittest:

"Oh, nymph, who quittest now this grot profound, To admire the greatest
king of all kings round."

"You would not put 'who quittest,' would you?"

"Why not?"

"'Quittest,' after 'you who'?"

"Ah! my dear fellow," exclaimed La Fontaine, "you are a shocking
pedant!"

"Without counting," said Moliere, "that the second verse, 'king of all
kings round,' is