Sarah often told me of the fatal dinner during the course of which the little director Chilly died.
“I shall never forget a detail of that night, as long as I live,” she said. “It was so incredibly a masterpiece of the great dramatist, Fate.” (She frequently spoke in a figurative sense.) “It all happened as though written, rehearsed and stage-managed for weeks, with every person there an actor word-perfect.
“We were received at the entrance to the restaurant by Victor Hugo himself. It was summer and extremely hot. Duquesnel, Chilly, Berton and I arrived all together in my carriage. Throughout the journey from my flat, Berton and Chilly had been heaping reproaches on me for my decision to leave the Odéon.
“Chilly was hurt and puzzled. He could not understand why a difference of only three thousand francs a year should make me leave the theatre which had been the birthplace of my celebrity. Berton was loudly querulous; he insisted on reminding me that it was he who had procured me my first engagement at the Odéon, and once came right out with the statement that it was Sarcey who was at the back of my desire to leave the theatre.
“This latter statement, which was quite untrue and which Berton must have known to have been untrue, angered me to such an extent that I stopped the carriage.
“‘Monsieur,’ I said to Berton, ‘either you will retract what you have just said, or you will get out of this carriage!’
“‘Well, then, why are you leaving us?’ demanded Berton sulkily. The man was incorrigible. I laughed at him.
“‘If you insist upon knowing why I am leaving the Odéon, Pierre,’ I answered him, ‘it is because I can no longer remain at the same theatre with you!’
“Chilly looked at me strangely, but said nothing. I know he was aware—the whole theatre was in possession of the main facts by this time—that I had broken with Berton, and I think he may have imagined there was some truth in the explanation I had jestingly given. At any rate, he ceased his complaints and said afterwards not a single word of protest at my leaving.
“I remember that, during the drive to the restaurant, Chilly frequently complained of the heat. He had been working hard all day, and we had, in fact, called at the theatre, and brought him directly from it in his working-clothes. He was the most indefatigable worker I have ever met.