"Charming mask, beware!" said a new comer who had made his way to the first rank of the auditors; "when you speak thus of Leon de Morville, one might be induced to believe that your seductions have failed to shake his fidelity to Lady Melford. You speak too maliciously of him not to have wished him--too well." "Really, Gercourt," answered the domino, gaily, "you seem to me monstrously good-natured to-day. Are they going to perform your comedy to-morrow?" "What, charming mask, do you believe that I have an interest in this matter?" "Unquestionably. A man of the world like you, of fashion like you, of wit like you, who is bold enough to have more wit than his neighbours--a man of wit, you know, is condemned to all sorts of unpleasant manœuvres--yet if your comedy fails, you must not accuse your friends of its failure." "Delightful mask, I should not be so unjust. If my comedy fail, I shall accuse no one but myself. When we have friends like Leon de Morville, of whom you speak such flattering unkindnesses, one may believe that there is yet such a thing as friendship." "What, do you wish to recommence our quarrel?" "Unquestionably." "To assert that Leon de Morville has wit?" "Unluckily for himself he is remarkably handsome, and so the envious like to have it supposed that he is very silly. If he squinted, stuttered, or was humpbacked, _peste_! people would not think for a moment of disputing his wit. It is incredible the advantages which ugliness possesses in our days." "Do you mean this as a defence of the majority of statesmen of the present day?" retorted the domino. "The fact is we may now say, _ugly as a minister!_" "Moreover, in this _serious_ age, there is nothing more serious than ugliness." "Without taking into consideration," said the domino, "that a hideous visage is always a sort of introduction and preparation for a future villainy, and in this sense it is very useful for certain statesmen to be ugly." "To return to M. de Morville, I never heard of his wit," said M. de Brévannes, sarcastically. "So much the better for him," replied M. de Gercourt; "I mistrust people whose _bon-mots_ are cited, I should even doubt M. de Talleyrand's reputation if I had not heard him talk. Confess, however, my dear Brévannes, that Morville has not an enemy, in spite of the envy which his success must excite." "Because he is a goose!" said the mask, doggedly; "persons who have really superior minds always have enemies." "It seems to me, then, charming mask," retorted M. de Gercourt, "that your ferocious hostility proves Leon de Morville's superiority." "Bah! bah!" replied the domino, without noticing this rejoinder; "the proof that M. de Morville is a poor creature is, that he always endeavours to produce an effect and make himself noticed; whether ridiculous or not, he does not care for the means by which he attains his desire." "What do you mean?" inquired M. de Gercourt.