CONCLUSION. 301 



I was alone. Be it understood, however, that when his mistress was 

 present, he -entirely forgot me, I was annulled ! 



Thus he grew accustomed to see me daily without any uneasiness, 

 as an inoffensive, pacific being, with little of movement or noise about 

 me. The fire in the grate, and near the fire this peaceable reader, 

 were, during the absences of the preferred individual, in the still and 

 almost solitary hours, his objects of contemplation. 



I ventured yesterday, being alone, to approach him, to speak to 

 him as I do to the robin, and he did not grow agitated, he did not 

 appear disturbed ; he listened quietly, with an eye full of softness. I 

 saw that peace was concluded, and that I was accepted. 



This morning I have with my own hand placed the poppy seed 

 in the cage, and he is not the least alarmed. You will say : " Who 

 gives is welcome." But I assert that our treaty was signed yesterday, 

 before I had given him anything, and was perfectly disinterested. 



See, then, in less than a month, the most nervous of artists, 

 the most timid and mistrustful of beings, grows reconciled with the 

 human species. 



A curious proof of the natural union, of the pre-existent alliance 

 which prevails between us and these creatures of instinct, which we 

 call inferior. 



This alliance, this eternal fact, which our brutality and our 

 ferocious intelligences have not yet been able to rend asunder, to 

 which these poor little ones so readily return, to which we shall 



