_I._--No, but when I have nothing better to do, I amuse myself by watching people who push it well. _He._--In that case you are amusing yourself with a vengeance. Except Philidor and Legal, there is not one of them who knows anything about it. _I._--What of M. de Bussy? _He._--He is as a chess-player what Mademoiselle Clairon is as an actress; they know of their playing, one and the other, as much as anybody can learn. _I._--You are hard to please, and I see you can forgive nothing short of the sublimities. _He._--True, in chess, women, poetry, eloquence, music, and all such fiddle-faddle. What is the use of mediocrity in these matters? _I._--Little enough, I agree. But the thing is that there must be a great number of men at work, for us to make sure of the man of genius: he is one out of a multitude. But let that pass. 'Tis an age since I have seen you. Though I do not often think about you when you are out of sight, yet it is always a pleasure to me to meet you. What have you been about? _He._--What you, I, and everybody else are about--some good, some bad, and nothing at all. Then, I have been hungry, and I have eaten when opportunity offered; after eating, I have been thirsty, and now and then have had something to drink. Besides that, my beard grew, and as it grew I had it shaved. _I._--There you were wrong; it is the only thing wanting to make a sage of you. _He._--Ay, ay; I have a wide and furrowed brow, a glowing eye, a firm nose, broad cheeks, a black and bushy eyebrow, a clean cut mouth, a square jaw. Cover this enormous chin with amplitude of beard, and I warrant you it would look vastly well in marble or in bronze. _I._--By the side of a Caesar, a Marcus Aurelius, a Socrates. _He._--Nay, I should be better between Diogenes, Lais, and Phryne. I am brazenfaced as the one, and I am happy to pay a visit to the others. _I._--Are you always well? _He._--Yes, commonly; but I am no great wonders to-day. _I._--Why, you have a paunch like Silenus, and a face like.... _He._--A face you might take for I don't know what. The ill humour that dries up my dear master seems to fatten his dear pupil. _I._--And this dear master, do you ever see him now? _He._--Yes, passing along the street. _I._--Does he do nothing for you?