appeared to us on intimate terms with the famous
Baroness Schinner, so renowned for her wit, her influence, her wealth
and her connection with celebrated men. I supposed that he was welcomed
at her house as a friend: my husband presented me, and I was coldly
received. I saw that her rooms were furnished with extravagant luxury;
and instead of Madame Schinner's returning my call, I received a card,
twenty days afterward, and at an insolently improper hour.

"On arriving at Paris, I went to walk upon the boulevard, proud of my
anonymous great man. He nudged me with his elbow, and said, pointing out
a fat little ill-dressed man, 'There's so and so!' He mentioned one of
the seven or eight illustrious men in France. I got ready my look of
admiration, and I saw Adolphe rapturously doffing his hat to the truly
great man, who replied by the curt little nod that you vouchsafe a
person with whom you have doubtless exchanged hardly four words in ten
years. Adolphe had begged a look for my sake. 'Doesn't he know you?'
I said to my husband. 'Oh, yes, but he probably took me for somebody
else,' replied he.

"And so of poets, so of celebrated musicians, so of statesmen. But, as
a compensation, we stop and talk for ten minutes in front of some
arcade or other, with Messieurs Armand du Cantal, George Beaunoir, Felix
Verdoret, of whom you have never heard. Mesdames Constantine Ramachard,
Anais Crottat, and Lucienne Vouillon threaten me with their _blue_
friendship. We dine editors totally unknown in our province. Finally I
have had the painful happiness of seeing Adolphe decline an invitation
to an evening party to which I was not bidden.

"Oh! Claire dear, talent is still the rare flower of spontaneous growth,
that no greenhouse culture can produce. I do not deceive myself: Adolphe
is an ordinary man, known, estimated as such: he has no other chance,
as he himself says, than to take his place among the _utilities_ of
literature. He was not without wit at Viviers: but to be a man of wit at
Paris, you must possess every kind of wit in formidable doses.

"I esteem Adolphe: for, after some few fibs, he frankly confessed his
position, and, without humiliating himself too deeply, he promised that
I should be happy. He hopes, like numerous other ordinary men, to
obtain some place, that of an assistant librarian, for instance, or
the pecuniary management of a newspaper. Who knows but we may get him
elected deputy for Viviers, in the course o