M. STEPHEN GIVES AN INCH. 275 



ten francs a-week. The entry to the theatre cost me a franc, 

 the rest went to the laundress, and now and then in gloves, 

 which, however seldom used, and taken care of, were not 

 immortal. 



I managed always so as to have, on a Friday, my twenty 

 sous to go to the theatre with. 



There I saw Magdeleine, there I was enraptured by her 

 presence J my looks met hers, and thence drew strength and 

 courage, hope and faith. As we left the theatre, by favour 

 of the crowd, I generally succeeded in slipping into her hand 

 a letter which I had been writing aU the week, and then she 

 gave me in exchange a morsel of paper, a letter from her ! 

 Wlien I think of the happiness I then felt, it appears to me 

 that I offended Heaven by the complaints I sometimes have 

 dared to breathe, when it has overwhelmed me with its 

 anger. 



We had now come to the Friday. This gave me some little 

 scintillations of happiness ; but I dreaded lest they should 

 wish me to stay at home : I knew very well that / would 

 not stay at home ; I knew very well / should be at the theatre; 

 but I was not wUling to quarrel with M. Levasseur, in 

 whose house I had found the only means I then knew of 

 providing for my existence. 



I did not wish to refuse to stay at home, if I should be 

 asked; I did not wish to prevent their going out, if I saw 

 them get ready, as I had done the evening before. 



I wished, without announcing that I was going out, which 

 would have been almost an abdication of my rights, — I wished 

 to manifest my intention before theirs could have shown 

 itself, by a commencement of execution. 



I dressed myself beforehand, and came in to dinner quite 

 prepared. M. Levasseur and his wife exchanged looks; 

 Madame Levasseur forgot two or three times to assist me ; 

 M. Levasseur heard three or four times a noise in the school- 

 room; then, as I asked the servant for bread, Madame Levas- 

 seur observed aloud that there was not a house in Paris in 

 which people ate so much as was eaten in hers. 



I felt myself blush; I was on the rack. As soon as dinner 

 was over, I saluted them, they scarcely returned my bow, and 

 I went out. That day Magdeleine did not come to the theatre. 



