"Very good!... And now I must confess, General, that I want to stay in Paris really to go in for literature."
"Ah! not really?"
"Really, General."
"Listen: you came to ask my advice ...?"
"Certainly I did."
"Very well, don't count too much on literature for a living; you look as though you had a good appetite; now, literature will necessitate your going hungry many a time.... However, on those days, you must look me up: the painter always shares his crusts with the poet. Ut pictura poesis! I do not need to interpret that, for I presume you know Latin."
"A little, General."
"That is much more than I do. Come, let us go and dine."
"Do we not dine at your rooms?"
"Do you imagine I am rich enough, on my half-pay, to keep up a kitchen and a household? No, no, no, indeed! I dine at the Palais-Royal for forty sous; to-day we will have an extra, and I can get it for six francs. You see you are not going to cost me much, so need not be anxious."