"'Still, if your critics offend you, why don't you reply to them?'
"'I have far too much time. But I think some day I will give a general answer, in the form of a lecture, in a public hall, which I shall call "Straight Talks to Old Men."'
"'What is your feeling towards your audiences—towards the public?'
"'Which public? There are as many publics as there are personalities.'
"'Are you nervous on the night that you are producing a new play?'
"'Oh no, I am exquisitely indifferent. My nervousness ends at the last dress rehearsal; I know then what effect my play, as presented upon the stage, has produced upon me. My interest in the play ends there, and I feel curiously envious of the public—they have such wonderful fresh emotions in store for them.'
"I laughed, but Mr Wilde rebuked me with a look of surprise.
"'It is the public, not the play, that I desire to make a success,' he said.
"'But I'm afraid I don't quite understand——'
"'The public makes a success when it realises that a play is a work of art. On the three first nights I have had in London the public has been most successful, and had the dimensions of the stage admitted of it, I would have called them before the curtain. Most managers, I believe, call them behind.'"