“With success?”
“Well, yes, Monsieur, I think I may flatter myself that far.”
“Take up that book, please. It is Fontaine’s Fables. Open it at the Oak and the Reed. Let me hear you read a line or two.”
The pupil begins:
“The Oak one day, said to the Reed——”
“That’s enough, sir! You don’t know anything about reading!”
“It is because I don’t know much, Monsieur Samson,” replies the pupil, a little nettled, “it is precisely because I don’t know much that I’ve come to you for lessons. But I don’t exactly comprehend how from my manner of reading a single verse——”
“Read the line again, sir.”
He reads it again:
“The Oak one day, said to the Reed——”