“Well, then give me the Courrier Français.”
“Here’s the first sheet of it, monsieur. You shall have the rest in a moment.”
“When I read a newspaper, madame, I like to have it whole; with this new fashion of yours, of cutting the paper in two, you sometimes make us wait at the most interesting places, and that is very unpleasant.”
“But, monsieur, we can’t take ten copies of the same paper! The expenses are big enough already! By cutting the paper, it is easier to accommodate a number of people, and the second sheet of the Courrier Français will certainly be returned before you have read the first.”
“That is not certain. I am not one of those people who spend an hour reading a column. I want a whole paper.”
“Will you have the Débats?”
“Very well, give me the Débats.”
The gentleman who insisted upon having a whole newspaper, like the children who insist upon having a dish to themselves at a restaurant, although they often cannot eat half of it, had entered the reading room grumbling; he took his seat upon a bench between two readers, one of whom, a young and courteous man, moved along to make room for him, while the other, who was old and wrinkled, with his hair brushed à la pigeon’s wing, glanced crossly at the newcomer and turned his back on him after muttering in a sour tone:
“Be careful, monsieur, you are sitting on my coat.”
I was standing at the door of the room, where I rarely remain long; I easily obtained a whole newspaper, because I selected a humble literary sheet; and in these days when politics engrosses everybody, mere literature is cruelly neglected. I can readily understand that people are interested in and absorbed by the interests of our country. There are times when I myself read the great newspapers eagerly; but even then I could not pass hours poring over them. What would you have? One cannot make oneself over, and politics has never been in my line. Indeed, I may be wrong, but it seems to me that that would be a most blessed country where the people were never called upon to busy themselves with politics.