"Yes, monsieur, here I am."
"So! so, monsieur!"
I made no reply.
"So we are too grand a lord to work with ordinary mortals?" M. Deviolaine continued.
"You are mistaken ... quite the contrary. I am not a sufficiently grand lord to work with the others, that is why I want to work alone."
"And you ask for an office to yourself, on purpose to do nothing in it but to write your dirty plays?"
"I ask for an office to myself so that I can have the right to think while I am working."
"And if I do not let you have an office to yourself?"
"I shall try to earn my living as an author. You know I have no other resource."