Perhaps that is why geniuses are such erratic people, and
mediocrities so respectable. I grant you that I was very limited
when I first came out; I was absolutely incapable of comedy. But I
never took any trouble about it; and by and by, when I began to
mature a little, and to see the absurdity of most of the things I
had been making a fuss about, comedy came to me unsought, as
romantic tragedy had come before. I suppose it would have come just
the same if I had been laboring to acquire it, except that I would
have attributed its arrival to my own exertions. Most of the
laborious people think they have made themselves what they are--much
as if a child should think it had made itself grow."
"You are the first artist I ever met," said Lydia, "who did not
claim art as the most laborious of all avocations. They all deny the
existence of genius, and attribute everything to work."
"Of course one picks up a great deal from experience; and there is
plenty of work on the stage. But it in my genius which enables me to
pick up things, and to work on the stage instead of in a kitchen or
laundry."
"You must be very fond of your profession."
"I do not mind it now; I have shrunk to fit it. I began because I
couldn't help myself; and I go on because, being an old woman, I
have nothing else to do.
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