Part 20 (2/2)

M Binet was shocked

”You advise me to do so! You advise e!”

”He is outrageous,” said eous is the word I thank you for it, my dear I take you on trust, sir You sit at my table, you have the honour to be included in my company, and to my face you have the audacity to advise me to become a thief--the worst kind of thief that is conceivable, a thief of spiritual things, a thief of ideas! It is insufferable, intolerable! I have been, I fear, deeply mistaken in you, monsieur; just as you appear to have been mistaken in me I am not the scoundrel you suppose me, sir, and I will not nuest that I should becory His voice booh the little roo scared, their eyes upon Andre-Louis, as the only one entirely unnation

”You realize,the memory of the illustrious dead?”

”Eh?” said Binet

Andre-Louis developed his sophistries

”You insult the e, one of the greatest ornaest that there is vileness in doing that which he never hesitated to do, which no great author yet has hesitated to do You cannot suppose that Moliere ever troubled hiinal in the matter of ideas You cannot suppose that the stories he tells in his plays have never been told before They were culled, as you very well know--though you seeotten it, and it is therefore necessary that I should remind you--they were culled, many of them, from the Italian authors, who themselves had culled them Heaven alone knohere

Moliere took those old stories and retold the that you should do Your coue as you proceed, which is rather more than Moliere ever atteh it would seeht to Boccaccio or Sacchetti But even then you cannot be sure that you have reached the sources”

Andre-Louis ca colours after that You see what a debater was lost in hi white look black The company was impressed, and no one more that M Binet, who found hiainst those who in future iarisms which he undoubtedly perpetrated He retired in the best order he could from the position he had taken up at the outset

”So that you think,” he said, at the end of a long outburst of agreement, ”you think that our story of 'The Heartless Father' could be enriched by dipping into 'Monsieur de Pourceaugnac,' to which I confess upon reflection that it may present certain superficial resemblances?”

”I do; most certainly I do--always provided that you do so judiciously

Tied since Moliere” It was as a consequence of this that Binet retired soon after, taking Andre-Louis with hiain in close co

After dinner M Binet read to the assembled company the amended and a upon the advice of M Parvissireat pains to prepare The company had few doubts as to the real authorshi+p before he began to read; none at all when he had read There was a verve, a grip about this story; and, as more, those of the the original more closely, this canevas had drawn farther away froinal part--the title role--had dwindled into insignificance, to the great disgust of Polichinelle, to whom it fell But the other parts had all been built up into importance, with the exception of Leandre, who rereat roles were now Scaraandini, and Pantaloon the father There was, too, a co bully hired by Polichinelle to cut Leandre into ribbons And in view of the importance now of Scaraaro-Scaramouche”

This last had not been without a deal of opposition from M Binet But his relentless collaborator, as in reality the real author--drawing shareat store of reading--had overborne him

”You must move with the tiaro' is known to-day throughout the world Let us borrow a little of his glory It will draw the people in They will coaro' when they will not come to see a dozen 'Heartless Fathers' Therefore let us cast the aro upon some one, and proclaim it in our title”

”But as I aan M Binet, weakly

”If you will be blind to your interests, you will presently be a head without a body And what use is that? Can the shoulders of Pantaloon carry the h The notion is absurd The proper person for the aro's twin-brother”

Thus tyrannized, the tyrant Binet gave way, co at all about the theatre, he had for fifteen livres ahim as many louis

The company's reception of the canevas now confir lost half his part in the alterations, declared the new scenario fatuous

”Ah! You call my work fatuous, do you?” M Binet hectored hiue in his cheek: ”Ah, pardon I had not realized that you were the author”

”Then realize it now”