The whole of this conversation which was repeated to me later on took much less time than it does now to write it down. Coquelin had been told and he now came on to the stage to finish the act. The curtain fell. I was stupefied and desperate afterwards on hearing all that people told me. I had not noticed that anything was wrong, and it seemed to me that I had played the whole of my part as usual, but I was really under the influence of the opium. There was very little for me to say in the fifth act, and I went through that perfectly well. The following day the accounts in the papers sounded the praises of our company but the piece itself was criticised. I was afraid at first that my involuntary omission of the important part in the third act was one of the causes of the severity of the press. This was not so, though, as all the critics had read and re-read the piece. They discussed the play itself, and did not mention my slip of memory. The _Figaro_, which was in a very bad humor with me just then, had an article from which I quote the following extract: “‘L’Etrangère’ is not a piece in accordance with the English taste. Mlle. Croizette, however, was applauded enthusiastically and so were Coquelin and Febvre. Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt, nervous as usual, lost her memory.” He knew perfectly well, worthy Mr. Johnson,[3] that I was very ill. He had been to my house and seen Dr. Parrot, consequently he was aware that I was acting in spite of the faculty in the interests of the Comédie Française. The English public had given me such proofs of appreciation that the Comédie was rather affected by it, and the _Figaro_, which was at that time the organ of the Théâtre Française, requested Johnson to modify his praises of me. This he did the whole time that we were in London. Footnote 3: T. Johnson, London correspondent of _Le Figaro_. My reason for telling about my loss of memory, which was quite an unimportant incident in itself, is merely to prove to authors how unnecessary it is to take the trouble of explaining the characters of their creations. Alexandre Dumas was certainly anxious to give us the reasons which caused _Mrs. Clarkson_ to act as strangely as she did. He had created a person who was extremely interesting and full of action as the play proceeds. She reveals herself to the public, in the first act, by the lines which _Mrs. Clarkson_ says to _Mme. de Septmonts_. “I should be very glad, madame, if you would call on me. We could talk about one of your friends, M. Gérard, whom I love perhaps, as much as you do, although he does not perhaps care for me as he does for you.”