Hugo let him go on lamenting and then asked—
"When did you hope to play Marion Delorme?"
"Why, either in January or February."
"Ah, good! then we shall have a margin.... Very well...." and he fell to making a calculation. "This is the 7th of August: come back to me on the 1st of October."
Taylor returned on the 1st of October. Hugo picked up a manuscript and gave it to him. It was Hernani. Hugo had begun this second work on 17 September and had finished it on the 25th of the same month. He had taken three days less over its composition than in the case of Marion Delorme. Let us, however, hasten to explain that the plots of both plays had been matured beforehand in the poet's head.
[CHAPTER XII]
The invasion of barbarians—Rehearsals of Hernani—Mademoiselle Mars and the lines about the lion—The scene over the portraits—Hugo takes away from Mademoiselle Mars the part of Doña Sol—Michelot's flattering complaisance to the public—The quatrain about the cup-board—Joanny