"30 May
"To the Editor.
"DEAR SIR,—Yesterday I was alone named as the author of La Tour de Neste, to-day my name is on the playbills, preceded by two M's, and * * *. It is an error or a piece of malice of which I will neither be the victim nor the dupe. In any case, will you please announce that, in my contract as on the stage, and as, I trust, on to-morrow's bills, I am and intend to be the sole author of La Tour de Neste.
F. GAILLARDET"
"There!" said I to Harel, "that is flat."
Harel unfolded a second letter.
"Here is my reply," he said.
"My dear man, the only answer you can make is to change the position of the stars."
"That does not enter into my planetary system.... Listen."
And he read—
"1 June
"To the Editor.
"This is my answer to the extraordinary letter from M. Gaillardet, who claims to be the sole author of La Tour de Neste. The play, entirely as far as style is concerned, and nineteen-twentieths, at least, as regards its composition, belongs to a celebrated collaborator who, for private reasons, did not wish to give his name after the immense success it received. Scarcely anything left is of the original work of M. Gaillardet. I assert this and will prove it, if need arises, by comparison of the MS. compared with that of M. Gaillardet.—Yours etc.
"HAREL"
On 2 June, the newspapers contained this reply from M. Gaillardet—
"To the Editor.
"By way of an answer to M. Harel, please be so good as to insert the enclosed letter, written to me by the celebrated collaborator of whom M. Harel speaks, which I received at Tonnerre, where I first learnt that I had a collaborator.
"F. GAILLARDET"