He turned to me, and laughingly replied, "Well, if the amount is not quite beyond my resources—a franc?—quel soulagement!—then go on."
"It is that I tell you your favourite Savoy opera, and that you don't tell me mine."
He walked on for a few minutes, and then said, "I think I must say 'The Yeoman of the Guard.'"
"So far, I have won," I remarked.
Again, after a little while, he continued, "I should not be surprised if it were 'Princess Ida.'"
I called out, "Sir Arthur the bet is off,"
handing him, at the same time, a slip of paper, on which I had previously written these two titles.
The incident led him to speak of various reminiscences in connection with the Savoy Theatre, one of which, I remember, he told me with great zest and evident appreciation.
Considerable exception had been taken to the title Mr. (later Sir William) Gilbert had chosen for one of the operas, "Ruddygore." The author professed to see no objection to it, but eventually announced to the composer that he intended to change it. He did. He renamed it "Rudd-i-gore."
Sir Arthur Sullivan left many and great claims on the gratitude of his countrymen. In the sphere of light opera, he enormously advanced the standard of taste.