There, does that satisfy you, M. Hugo?"
"Perfectly, madame." And Hugo bowed and sat down with his imperturbable serenity.
The next day, Mademoiselle Mars stopped the rehearsal at the same place, came up to the footlights and, shading her eyes with her hand, said, in exactly the same voice as that of the day before—
"Are you there, M. Hugo?"
"I am here, madame."
"Well, have you found me something to say?"
"Where?"
"Why, you know where ... in the famous scene where these gentlemen say a hundred and fifty lines while I stare at them and do not utter a word.... I know they are charming to contemplate, but a hundred and fifty lines take a long time to say."
"In the first place, madame, the scene is not a hundred and fifty lines in length, it is only seventy-six, for I have counted them; then, I did not make you any promise to put in something for you to say, since, on the contrary, I tried to prove to you that your silence and immobility, from which you emerge with terrible éclat, is one of the beauties of the whole scene."
"Beauties, beauties!... I am much afraid the public will not agree with you."