(Adapted from the French.)
SCENE—A Street. Enter BROWN and JONES. They meet, and regard one another for a moment, fixedly. Then they salute one another respectfully.
Brown. I have been looking for you everywhere.
Jones. Then I am delighted to have met you.
Brown. I have said of you that you are a trickster, a scoundrel, a fool, and an idiot!
Jones. Yes—and I have regretted the saying, because it shows to me that you have misunderstood the great literary movement of the present day, in its vast and varied effort.
Brown. Of that I know nothing, for I confess I have never read your books.
Jones (reproachfully). Yes—and yet you accuse me of being a trickster, a scoundrel, and a fool, without knowing my works?
Brown. It was my duty. But still I had no wish to be guilty of an outrage.
Jones. An outrage—how an outrage?