But when the champagne appeared after the roast and the grand burgundies,
his over-excitement brought him back perforce to his real nature. The
conversation had now turned on Corneille's "Polyeucte" and the part of
"Pauline," in which Silviane wished to make her /debut/ at the Comedie
Francaise. This extraordinary caprice, which had quite revolted the
influential critic a week previously, now seemed to him simply a bold
enterprise in which the young woman might even prove victorious if she
consented to listen to his advice. And, once started, he delivered quite
a lecture on the past, asserting that no actress had ever yet understood
it properly, for at the outset Pauline was simply a well-meaning little
creature of the middle classes, and the beauty of her conversion at the
finish arose from the working of a miracle, a stroke of heavenly grace
which endowed her with something divine. This was not the opinion of
Silviane, who from the first lines regarded Pauline as the ideal heroine
of some symbolical legend. However, as the critic talked on and on, she
had to feign approval; and he was delighted at finding her so beautiful
and docile beneath his ferule. At last, as ten o'clock was striking, he
rose and tore out of the hot and reeking room in order to do his work.
"Ah! my dears," cried Silviane, "he's a nice bore is that critic of
yours! What a fool he is with his idea of Pauline being a little
/bourgeoise/! I would have given him a fine dressing if it weren't for
the fact that I have some need of him.
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