“I wish to heaven that I knew how you set about it. I have heard G. P. R. James backed for a volume a-month, but this sinks him into utter insignificance.”
“There is no difficulty in explaining it. He writes,—I never do.”
“You never write?”
“Never.”
“Then how the mischief do you manage?”
“I compose. Since I met you, I have composed and dictated a whole chapter of the Memoirs of a Physician!”
“Dictated?”
“To be sure. It is already written down, and will be circulated throughout Paris to-morrow.”
“Monsieur le Marquis—have I the honour to hold an interview with Satan?”
“Mon cher, vous me flattez beaucoup! I have not thought it necessary to intrust my experiences to the sympathising bosom of M. Frédéric Soulié.”