MIRABEAU IN THE NEW HALL OF MIRRORS

all in a whirl the three of them sit to a table heart saying first be still ... do you know what you're proposing ego puts on the paper ... look to society and see what you've done ... those are somebody's children out there ... well says the old french politician ... but wait look more closely he isn't old ... the height only of middle age ... well they're not my children and they aren't children either ... I resent the word ... you know it has at least two meanings ... and I more than you repel the idea of children in such scenes as we propose ... ego's first decree is withdrawn before it can fail ... he himself must apologize or be censured ... he apologizes conditionally by way of a clarification ... then with understated flourish presents his second proclamation ... having just secured the first as it is for free ... I wonder says the old french wizard giving it a glance ... honesty his only fault ... I wonder you can see virtue as all your reward ... as if in all the courts of excellence there never was one courtesan