CHAPTER XVIII

[AFTER THE PLAY]

"Well?"

"Decided success."

"Yes, great and unquestionable."

"How devilish lucky Gercourt is!"

"It is a capital beginning."

"Bah! he never wrote the thing."

"Why, that idea came into my head the moment I saw it must succeed."

"If it had only had moderate success, one might have believed that Gercourt really wrote the play."