"But at your time
of life you should have learnt that in this world nothing succeeds
like audacity."
"I forbid it; I absolutely forbid it," M. Binet insisted.
"I knew you would. Just as I know that you'll be very grateful to
me presently for not obeying you."
"You are inviting a catastrophe."
"I am inviting fortune. The worst catastrophe that can overtake
you is to be back in the market-halls of the country villages from
which I rescued you. I'll have you in Paris yet in spite of
yourself. Leave this to me."
And he went out to attend to the printing. Nor did his preparations
end there. He wrote a piquant article on the glories of the Comedie
de l'Art, and its resurrection by the improvising troupe of the
great mime Florimond Binet. Binet's name was not Florimond; it was
just Pierre. But Andre-Louis had a great sense of the theatre. That
article was an amplification of the stimulating matter contained in
the playbills; and he persuaded Basque, who had relations in Nantes,
to use all the influence he could command, and all the bribery they
could afford, to get that article printed in the "Courrier Nantais"
a couple of days before the arrival of the Binet Troupe.
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