“They say, with truth, that misfortunes never come singly.  You know Melanie, whom I prevented from making her debut at the Vaudeville?  By taking her away from all society, lodging her in a comfortable manner and obliging her to work, I rendered her a valuable service.  She was a good girl, and, aside from her love for the theatre and a certain indolence that was not without charm, I did not find any fault in her and grew more attached to her every day.  Sometimes after spending long hours with her, a fancy for a retired life and domestic happiness would seize me.  Gentlemen with brains are privileged to commit foolish acts at times, and I really do not know what I might have ended in doing, had I not been preserved from the danger in an unexpected manner.

“One evening, when I arrived at Melanie’s, I found the bird had flown.  That great ninny of a Ferussac, whom I never had suspected, and had introduced to her myself, had turned her head by making capital out of her love for the stage.  As he was about to leave for Belgium, he persuaded her to go there and dethrone Mademoiselle Prevost.  I have since learned that a Brussels banker revenged me by taking this Helene of the stage away from Ferussac.  Now she is launched and can fly with her own wings upon the great highway of bravos, flowers, guineas—­”

“And wreck and ruin,” added Marillac.  “Here’s to her health!”

“This triple disappointment of pride, money, and heart did not cause, I hope you will believe me, the deep state of melancholy into which I soon fell; but the malady manifested itself upon this occasion, for it had been lurking about me for a long time, as the dormant pain of a wound is aroused if one pours a caustic upon its surface.

“There is some dominant power in each individual which is developed at the expense of the other faculties, above all when the profession one chooses suits his nature.  The vital powers thus condensed manifest themselves externally, and gush out with an abundance which would become impossible if all the faculties were used alike, and if life filtered away, so to speak.  To avoid such destruction, and concentrate life upon one point, in order to increase the action, is the price of talent and individuality.  Among athletes, the forehead contracts according as the chest enlarges; with men of thought, it is the brain which causes the other organs to suffer, insatiable vampire, exhausting at times the last drop of blood in the body which serves as its victim.  This vampire was my torturer.

“For ten years I had crowded romance upon poetry, vaudeville upon drama, literary criticism upon leader; I proved, through my own self, in a physical way, the phenomena of the absorption of the senses by intelligence.  Many times, after several nights of hard work, the chords of my mind being too violently stretched, they relaxed and gave only indistinct harmony.  Then, if I happened to resist this lassitude of nature demanding