CHAPTER XXI
MODESTE PLAYS HER PART
The game opened with the baron and the duke, Gobenheim and Latournelle
as partners. Modeste took a seat near the poet, to Ernest's deep
disappointment; he watched the face of the wayward girl, and marked
the progress of the fascination which Canalis exerted over her. La
Briere had not the gift of seduction which Melchior possessed. Nature
frequently denies it to true hearts, who are, as a rule, timid. This
gift demands fearlessness, an alacrity of ways and means that might be
called the trapeze of the mind; a little mimicry goes with it; in fact
there is always, morally speaking, something of the comedian in a
poet. There is a vast difference between expressing sentiments we do
not feel, though we may imagine all their variations, and feigning to
feel them when bidding for success on the theatre of private life. And
yet, though the necessary hypocrisy of a man of the world may have
gangrened a poet, he ends by carrying the faculties of his talent into
the expression of any required sentiment, just as a great man doomed
to solitude ends by infusing his heart into his mind.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333