The curtain fell in the midst of immense applause. I was stunned, dazzled, fascinated. Adolphe proposed we should go to Talma's dressing-room to thank him. I followed him through that inextricable labyrinth of corridors which wind about the back regions of the Théâtre-Français, and which to-day unfortunately are no longer unknown regions to me. No client who ever knocked at the door of the original Sylla felt his heart beat so fast and so furiously as did mine at the door of the actor who had just personated him. De Leuven pushed open the door. The great actor's dressing-room lay before us: it was full of men whom I did not know, who were all famous or about to become famous. There was Casimir Delavigne, who had just written the last scenes of _l'École des Vieillards;_ there was Lucien Arnault, who had just had his _Régulus_ performed; there was Soumet, still very proud of his twofold success of _Saül_ and of _Clytemnestre_; there was Népomucène Lemercier, that paralysed sulky brute, whose talents were as crooked as his body, who in his healthy moments had composed _Agamemnon, Pinto,_ and _Fridegonde,_ and in his unhealthy hours _Christophe Colomb, la Panhypocrisiade,_ and _Cahin-Caha;_ there was Delrieu, who had been at work upon the revised version of his _Artaxerch,_ since 1809; there was Viennet, whose tragedies made a sensation for fifteen or twenty years on paper, to live and agonise and die within a week, like him whose reign lasted two hours and whose torture three days; there was, finally, the hero of the hour, M. de Jouy, with his tall figure, his fine white head, his intellectual and kindly eyes, and in the centre of them all--Talma in his simple white robe, just despoiled of its purple, his head from which he had just removed the crown and his two graceful white hands with which he had just broken the Dictator's palm. I stayed at the door, blushing vividly, and very humble. "Talma," said Adolphe, "we have come to thank you." Talma looked round out of his eye-corners. He perceived me at the door. "Ah! ah!" he said; "come in." I took two steps towards him. "Well, Mr. Poet," said he, "were you satisfied?" "I am more than that, monsieur ... I am wonder-struck." "Very well, you must come and see me again, and ask for more seats." "Alas! Monsieur Talma, I leave Paris to-morrow or the day after at latest." "That is a pity! you might have seen me in _Régulus._ ... You know I have put _Régulus_ on the bill for the day after to-morrow, Lucien?" "Yes," Lucien replied. "And cannot you stop till the evening of the day after to-morrow?" "Impossible: I have to return to the provinces." "What do you do in the provinces?" "I dare not tell you: lama lawyer's clerk ..." And I heaved a deep sigh. "Bah!" said Talma, "you must not give way to despair on that account! Corneille was clerk to a procurator!... Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to a future Corneille." I blushed to the eyes.