A great number of such miscellanies appeared in France, and in
England also, about that time.]
CAT. And certain others, whom, we have been told, are likewise the
sovereign arbiters of all that is handsome.
MASC. I can manage this for you better than any one; they all visit me;
and I may say that I never rise without having half-a-dozen wits at my
levee.
MAD. Good Heavens! you will place us under the greatest obligation if
you will do us the kindness; for, in short, we must make the
acquaintance of all those gentlemen if we wish to belong to the fashion.
They are the persons who can make or unmake a reputation at Paris; you
know that there are some, whose visits alone are sufficient to start the
report that you are a _Connaisseuse_, though there should be no other
reason for it. As for me, what I value particularly is, that by means of
these ingenious visits, we learn a hundred things which we ought
necessarily to know, and which are the quintessence of wit. Through them
we hear the scandal of the day, or whatever niceties are going on in
prose or verse. We know, at the right time, that Mr. So-and-so has
written the finest piece in the world on such a subject; that Mrs.
So-and-so has adapted words to such a tune; that a certain gentleman has
written a madrigal upon a favour shown to him; another stanzas upon a
fair one who betrayed him; Mr.
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