it was fixing very humble limits to my ambition to think of reducing
myself for life to the condition of a music-master. She, who formed for
me the brightest projects, and no longer trusted implicitly to the
judgment of M. d'Aubonne, seeing with concern that I was so seriously
occupied with a talent which she thought frivolous, frequently repeated
to me that provincial proverb, which does not hold quite so good in
Paris,

"Qui biens chante et biens dance,
fait un metier qui peu avance."

[He who can sweetly sing and featly dance.
His interests right little shall advance.]

On the other hand, she saw me hurried away by this irresistible passion,
my taste for music having become a furor, and it was much to be feared
that my employment, suffering by my distraction, might draw on me a
discharge, which would be worse than a voluntary resignation.
I represented to her; that this employment could not last long, that it
was necessary I should have some permanent means of subsistence, and that
it would be much better to complete by practice the acquisition of that
art to which my inclination led me than to make fresh essays, which
possibly might not succeed, since by this means, having passed the age
most proper for improvement, I might be left without a single resource
for gaining a livelihood: in short, I extorted her consent more by
importunity and caresses than by any satisfactory reasons. Proud of my
success, I immediately ran to thank M. Coccelli, Director-General of the
Survey, as though I had performed the most heroic action, and quitted my
employment without cause, reason, or pretext, with as much pleasure as I
had accepted it two years before.