Men and things began to appear to me in their true light, and the world, which until now had been hidden from me in the mists of illusion, began to show itself as it really is, as God and the Devil have made it, interspersed with good and evil, spotted with dirt. I related to Adolphe everything that had occurred. "Go on," he said; "if your story finishes as it has begun, you will accomplish much more than the writing of a comic opera: you will write a comedy." But Adolphe's thoughts were in reality busy on my behalf. _Régulus_ was to be played at the Théâtre-Français that night: he had asked for two orchestra stalls from Lucien Arnault, and had kept them for me; only, on that evening, he would be too busy to come with me: the _Pauvre Fille_ claimed every minute of his time. I was almost glad of this inability: I could thus take General Verdier to the play in return for his dinner. I found him waiting for me at his house at six o'clock; I showed him my two tickets, and laid my proposal before him. "Well, well, well!" he said, "I cannot refuse this: I do not often allow myself the luxury of going to the play, and especially as it is Talma...." "You know some dramatists, then?" "Yes, I know M. Arnault." "Very good!... And now I must confess, General, that I want to stay in Paris really to go in for literature." "Ah! not really?" "Really, General." "Listen: you came to ask my advice ...?" "Certainly I did." "Very well, don't count too much on literature for a living; you look as though you had a good appetite; now, literature will necessitate your going hungry many a time.... However, on those days, you must look me up: the painter always shares his crusts with the poet. _Ut pictura poesis!_ I do not need to interpret that, for I presume you know Latin." "A little, General." "That is much more than I do. Come, let us go and dine." "Do we not dine at your rooms?" "Do you imagine I am rich enough, on my half-pay, to keep up a kitchen and a household? No, no, no, indeed! I dine at the Palais-Royal for forty sous; to-day we will have an _extra_, and I can get it for six francs. You see you are not going to cost me much, so need not be anxious." We betook ourselves to the Palais-Royal, where indeed we dined excellently for our six francs, or rather for General Verdier's six francs. Then we went to take our places for _Régulus._ My mind was still full of _Sylla_; I saw the gloomy Dictator enter with his flattened locks, his crowned head, his forehead furrowed with anxieties: his speech was deliberate, almost solemn; his glance--that of a lynx and a hyena--shot from under his drooping eyelids like that of a nocturnal animal which sees in the darkness. Thus I awaited Talma.