"Oh! monsieur won't come until the day of the party or the day before. He never meddles in such things." I could not have chosen my time better. I hastened to surprise her. The welcome I received satisfied me that she was flattered by my zeal. "It is very good of you to come first," she said; "we can rehearse a scene from _Le Barbier_ together. Our parts are very long, you know, and, for my part, I have a very poor memory." "I will do whatever you please, madame." "Come first of all to look at our theatre. I am sure that you expect to find a cramped little place, where your head touches the flies, and the houses are smaller than the actors. Come, monsieur; I am determined that the sight of our playhouse shall arouse a spirit of emulation in you." She laughingly led me into the garden; the theatre was in the centre. It was large, convenient, and excellently arranged. The auditorium was tastefully decorated and would hold about three hundred people. "Well, monsieur! what do you say to our theatre?" "That it would put many provincial theatres to shame." "And we flatter ourselves, too, that we give better performances than one sees in the provinces. We do not shrink from anything: comedy, vaudeville, opéra-comique! We play everything except tragedy." "Why that exception?" "You will agree that in the best amateur company at least half of the performers are good for nothing and provoke laughter, which in our theatre is never prohibited; but we noticed that the audience always laughed more at tragedies than at other plays; and as we could not mistake that for applause, we have ceased to play any but merry pieces; now, when we cause laughter we can persuade ourselves that it is a sign of approval. There is always some way of sparing one's self-esteem, you see. At our last performance we had a most complete success! We gave _Porceaugnac_, with all the scenic accessories; nothing was forgotten; I fancy that we bought all the syringes in Montmorency. But it was charming, and it made a great sensation. It was spoken of in Paris; we even had an article in the paper. You will agree, monsieur, that our honor is involved now in maintaining our reputation."