"We shall see."
"Yes, but you may see a little too late.... So you definitely mean to have your way in not giving me anything to say through the whole scene?"
"I do."
"It is all one to me; I will go to the back of the stage and let these gentlemen talk over their business in the front of it."
"You can retire to the back of the stage if you wish, madame, but as the affairs under discussion are as much yours as theirs, you will spoil the scene.... When it suits you, madame, the rehearsal shall be proceeded with."
And the rehearsal was continued.
But, every day, there were some interruptions of the kind to which we have just drawn attention; this annoyed Hugo greatly, for he was still only at the outset of his dramatic career, and imagined that the greatest difficulty was the creation of the play and the most vexatious that of putting it into proper form; he now discovered that all this was child's play compared with the rehearsals. At last, one day, he lost patience and, when the rehearsal was over, he went on the stage and, approaching Mademoiselle Mars, he said—
"Madame, may I be allowed the honour of a few words with you?"
"With me?" replied Mademoiselle Mars in astonishment at this solemn beginning.