"
"Well, and am I never to laugh, who provide so many laughs for you all?"
_"C'est juste._ You shall share the general merriment. Imagine a romantic
soul, who adores you for _your simplicity!"_
"My simplicity! Am I so very simple?"
"No," said Sir Charles, monstrous dryly. "He says you are out of place on
the stage, and wants to take the star from its firmament, and put it in a
cottage."
"I am not a star," replied the Woffington, "I am only a meteor. And what
does the man think I am to do without this (here she imitated applause)
from my dear public's thousand hands?"
"You are to have this" (he mimicked a kiss) "from a single mouth,
instead."
"He is mad! Tell me what more he says. Oh, don't stop to invent; I should
detect you; and you would only spoil this man."
He laughed conceitedly. "I should spoil him! Well, then, he proposes to
be your friend rather than your lover, and keep you from being talked of,
he! he! instead of adding to your _eclat."_
"And if he is your friend, why don't you tell him my real character, and
send him into the country?"
She said this rapidly and with an appearance of earnest. The diplomatist
fell into the trap.
"I do," said he; "but he snaps his fingers at me and common sense and the
world. I really think there is only one way to get rid of him, and with
him of every annoyance."
"Ah! that would be nice.
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