“No, it is not that.”
“What is it then?”
“Well, at that dinner they said to you: ‘M. Dumas, you ought to write a play for Rouen based upon some subject taken from its own history.’”
“To which I replied: ‘Nothing easier; I will come at your first summons and spend a fortnight in Rouen. You can suggest the subject, and during that fortnight I will write the play, the royalties of which I shall devote to the poor.’”
“That is true, you said that.”
“I see nothing sufficiently insulting in that to incur the hatred of the Rouenese.”
“Yes, but they added: ‘Will you write it in prose?’ To which you replied—Do you remember what you answered?”
“My faith! no.”
“You replied: ‘I will write it in verse; it is soonest done.’”
“That sounds like me. Well, what then?”