“There are always plenty of ups and downs in a theatrical career,” he said—“the wheel of Fortune turns very fast in that profession; but if misfortunes come suddenly, so also does prosperity follow quickly in their train. Don’t be discouraged!—things are brightening with you now. Tomorrow morning I will send one of my stout farm-horses to bring your chariot on here, and we will rig up a theatre in my big barn; there is a large town not far from this which will send us plenty of spectators. If the entertainment does not fetch as good a sum as I think it will, I have a little fund of _pistoles_ lying idle here that will be entirely at your service, for, by Apollo! I would not leave my good Blazius and his friends in distress so long as I had a copper in my purse.” “I see that you are always the same warm-hearted, openhanded Bellombre as of old,” cried the pedant, grasping the other’s outstretched hand warmly; “you have not grown rusty and hard in consequence of your bucolic occupations.” “No,” Bellombre replied, with a smile; “I do not let my brain lie fallow while I cultivate my fields. I make a point of reading over frequently the good old authors, seated comfortably by the fire with my feet on the fender, and I read also such new works as I am able to procure, from time to time, here in the depths of the country. I often go carefully over my own old parts, and I see plainly what a self-satisfied fool I was in the old days, when I was applauded to the echo every time I appeared upon the stage, simply because I happened to be blessed with a sonorous voice, a graceful carriage, and a fine leg; the doting stupidity of the public, with which I chanced to be a favourite, was the true cause of my success.” “Only the great Bellombre himself would ever be suffered to say such things as these of that most illustrious ornament of our profession,” said the tyrant, courteously. “Art is long, but life is short,” continued the ci-devant actor, “and I should have arrived at a certain degree of proficiency at last perhaps, but—I was beginning to grow stout; and I would not allow myself to cling to the stage until two footmen should have to come and help me up from my rheumatic old knees every time I had a declaration of love to make, so I gladly seized the opportunity afforded me by my little inheritance, and retired in the height of my glory.” “And you were wise, Bellombre,” said Blazius, “though your retreat was premature; you might have given ten years more to the theatre, and then have retired full early.” In effect he was still a very handsome, vigorous man, about whom no signs of age were apparent, save an occasional thread of silver amid the rich masses of dark hair that fell upon his shoulders.