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154 THE CONFESSION OF A FOOL
descend when there is a possibihty of rising? Put your
foot on that old woman ! With one stride rise far above
her head ! Show off this lying, hypocritical, vicious
society, which opens its houses to prostitutes, but closes
them to a divorced wife. It’s good stuff for a play."
But she was one of those soft natures, very susceptible,
very easily impressed, but unable to strike back.
"No, no revenge!
"
And cowardly and revengeful at the same time, slie left
vengeance to God ; it came to the same thing in the end,
but it put the responsibility on a man of straAv.
But I persevered, and at last fortune favoured me. I
had an order from a publisher to edit an illustrated book
for children.
"Write the text," I suggested; "you will be paid a
hundred francs for it."
I supplied her with reference books ; I made her believe
that she had done the work unaided, and she pocketed
the hundred francs. But I paid a heavy penalty. The
publisher stipulated that my name, which had come before
the pulîlic as that of a playwright, should appear on the
title-page. It was literary prostitution, and my enemies,
who had predicted my incapacity of distinguishing myself
in literature, triumphed.
After that I persuaded her to write an article for one
of the morning papers. She acquitted herself fairly well.
The article was accepted, but the paper made no payment.
I wore myself out in trying to raise a sovereign, and,
succeeding after endless efforts, I handed it over to her
with the white lie that it represented her remuneration
from the paper.
Poor Marie ! She was delighted to give her small
earnings to her old mother, who supplemented her income
by letting furnished apartments.
The old ladies began to look upon me as their saviour ;
copies of translations, unanimously rejected by theatrical
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