"I do not intend to act my part in your play on Saturday."
"Oh! why not, if you please?"
"Because I have spent fifteen hundred francs on my dresses, and wish them to be seen."
"But why can they not be seen on Saturday as well as on any other day?"
"Because we had been promised a new chandelier for Saturday, and the man has just put us off for another three months. When there is another chandelier I will play in your piece."
"Ah! madame," I said to her, "there is only one thing likely to put a stumbling-block in the way of your kind intention...."
"What is that?"
"In three months my play will have been acted."
"How can it?"