"M. Dumas," he said to me, "that is a somewhat subtle question, and one which, if you must have it answered, should be referred to a council and not to a prince of the blood. However, you are right about the portrait; I will put _Napoléon Bonaparte_." I bowed and withdrew to the library. The duke remained in the picture gallery lost in thought. CHAPTER V The things that are the greatest enemies to the success of a play --The honesty of Mademoiselle Mars' as an actress--Her dressing-room --The habitués at her supper-parties--Vatout--Denniée--Becquet --Mornay--Mademoiselle Mars in her own home--Her last days on the stage --Material result of the success of _Henri III._--My first speculation--The recasting of _Christine_--Where I looked for my inspiration--Two other ideas At the thirty-fifth representation of _Henri III._ Mademoiselle Mars was obliged to take her holiday. She did her utmost to persuade the Comédie-Française to compensate her for this holiday; she gave them every possible facility, but the Comédie-Française would not listen to anything. The success of _Henri III._ served certain interests but wounded certain _amour-propres._ At the Comédie-Française one suffers from a peculiarity unknown, or very nearly so, in any other theatre. The author whose piece is being acted makes enemies of all the actors who are not taking part in it. Towards the close of the run of _Henri III._ I noticed Monrose, an excellent comedian whose talents should have raised him above the paltry jealousies of those of lesser genius, come into the green-room, rubbing his hands together and exclaiming gleefully-- "Ah! we have taken five hundred francs less to-night than at the last representation!" I was present--he had not perceived me at first, and, when he caught sight of me, he pretended not to have seen me, and went away. Mademoiselle Mars was on the point of renouncing her holiday, so reluctant was she to interrupt the success of the run. Mademoiselle Mars was an exceedingly straightforward, honest actress, I nearly said an honest _man_, and punctiliously accurate; everyone did his duty when connected with her, because she did hers as carefully as a pupil during her first year at a boarding-school. Once only was she a few minutes late at a rehearsal. "I beg your pardon for being a quarter of an hour late," she said as she came in; "but I have just lost forty thousand francs.... Let us be quick and begin." And she rehearsed as though nothing had happened. Once, when she was going on the stage, she had a sort of apoplectic fit; but, instead of interrupting the play, as any other actress would have done, she sent for leeches, and between the first and third acts she took advantage of the second act, in which she did not have to appear, to apply them to her chest. When I entered her dressing-room after the play, she was covered with blood down to her slippers.