Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

Prdcy a7id the Marionettes. 231
life ? Do you think I would rather be a
fat burgess, Hke a calf ? Not I ! I have had
moments when I have been applauded on the
boards : I think nothing of that ; but I have
known in my own mind sometimes, when I had
not a clap from the whole house, that I had
found a true intonation, or an exact and speak-
ing gesture ; and then, messieurs, I have known
what pleasure was, what it was to do a thing
well, what it was to be an artist. And to know
what art is, is to have an interest for ever, such
as no burgess can find in his petty concerns.
TeneZj messieurs, je vais vans le dire — it is like a
religion."
Such, making some allowance for the tricks of
memory and the inaccuracies of translation, was
the profession of faith of M. de Vmiversin. I
have given him his own name, lest any other
wanderer should come across him, with his
guitar and cigarette, and Mademoiselle Ferrario)