"Because if you are, I would beg you to call and tell my mother you are hopeful: she has great confidence in you, and as everybody seems bent on telling her I shall never do anything...." "The fact is you have not done very much up to now!" "Because they were determined to push me into a vocation I was not fitted for, dear Monsieur Danré; but you will see, directly they leave me alone to do what I am cut out for, I shall become a hard worker." "Mind you do! I will reassure your mother, relying on your word." "You may, and I will fulfil it." The day but one after my visit, M. Danré came to Villers-Cotterets, as he had promised, and saw my mother. I was watching for his coming; I let him start the conversation and then I came in. My mother was crying, but seemed to have made up her mind. When she saw me, she held out her hand. "You are bent on leaving me, then?" she said. "I must, mother. But do not be uneasy; if we separate, this time it will not be for long." "Yes, because you will fail, and return to Villers-Cotterets once more." "No, no, mother; on the contrary, because I shall succeed, and bring you to Paris." "And when do you mean to go?" "Listen, mother dear: when a great resolution is taken, the sooner it is put into execution the better.... Ask M. Danré." "Yes, ask Lazarille. I do not know what you did to M. Danré, but the fact is...." "M. Danré is fair-minded, mother; he knows that everything must move in its own appointed surroundings if it is to become of any worth. I should make a bad lawyer, a bad solicitor, a bad sheriffs officer; I should make a shocking bad teacher I You know quite well that it took three schoolmasters to get me through the multiplication table and it was not a brilliant success. Very well! I believe I can do something better." "What, you scamp?" "Mother, I swear I know nothing about what I shall do, but you remember what the fortune-teller whom you questioned on my behalf predicted?" My mother sighed. "What did she predict?" asked M. Danré.