''Why  on  earth  can  you  want  to  go  to  Madame  Firmiani's  ?
It  is  as  dull  there  as  it  is  at  Court.  Of  what  use  are  brains
if  they  do  not  keep  you  out  of  such  drawing-rooms,  where,
with  poetry  such  as  is  now  current,  you  hear  the  most  trivial
little  ballad  just  hatched  out."

You  have  asked  one  of  your  friends  who  comes  under  the
class  of  petty  autocrats — men  who  would  like  to  have  the
universe  under  lock  and  key,  and  have  nothing  done  without
their  leave.  They  are  miserable  at  other  people's  enjoyment,
can  forgive  nothing  but  vice,  wrong-doing,  and  infirmities,
and  want  nothing  but  proteges.  Aristocrats  by  taste,  they
are  republicans  out  of  spite,  simply  to  discover  many  inferiors
among  their  equals.
"Oh,  Madame  Firmiani,  my  dear  fellow,  is  one  of  those
adorable  women  whom  Nature  feels  to  be  a  sufficient  excuse


leO  MADAME  FIRMIANI

for  all  the  ugly  ones  she  has  created  by  mistake;  she  is  be-
witching, she  is  kind !  I  should  like  to  be  in  power,  to  be
king,  to  have  millions  of  money,  solely  (and  three  words  are
whispered  in  your  ear).     Shall  I  introduce  you  to  her?"

This  young  man  is  a  Schoolboj'-,  known  for  his  audacious
bearing  among  men  and  his  extreme  shyness  in  private.
