"Yes, and I am going to tell it to you," said the one referred to,
from the depths of his cloak. "Though you may believe me that it is no
pleasant task to relate such follies. But it concerns a girl whom we
all of us love, and whatever affects her ought to interest us.

"Some three years ago a young man, faultlessly dressed and with the
manuscript of a play under his arm, called upon the director of this
theater. Now there is nothing in the world more impressive and
awe-inspiring than a well-dressed young man who carries the manuscript
of a play under his arm. The director did his best to dodge him, and
held him off with a number of adroit moves; but he was finally
cornered, all the same. In other words, the young man invited him to
breakfast one day, enticing him with the seductive prospect of several
dozen oysters, washed down with abundant Sauterne, and for dessert he
shot off his play at close range.

"As it turned out, the play was no good. Pepe did what you know one
does in such cases: he expressed deep admiration for the
versification, he said 'bravo!' over certain obscurely phrased
thoughts, and finally he recommended a few changes in the second act,
after which the work would be unexceptionable.

"The unwary poet returned home greatly pleased, and set to work
zealously upon the revision. At the end of a fortnight he returned for
another interview with Pepe; this time the latter found the first act
somewhat slow, and advised him at any cost to put more action into it
and make it somewhat shorter. It took the poet a month to rewrite the
first act. When he once more presented himself, the director, while
expressing great admiration for the excellence of the verse and for
some of the ideas, manifested some doubt as to whether the play was