At four o'clock, I got down to the door of the Home Office. I went in at once and reached the Minister's private office, without any obstacle preventing me; the office-boys and ushers who had seen me come there three or four times during the past fortnight, that is to say during the period M. Thiers had been Home Minister, did not even think of asking me where I was going. M. Thiers was at work with his secretary. He was exceedingly busy just at that time; for Paris had only just come out of her troubles of the 13 and 14 April, and the insurrection of the Lyons Mutualists was scarcely over; the budget of trade and of public works was under discussion, for, in spite of a special department, these accounts remained under the care of the Home Office; finally, they were just passing to the general discussion of the Fine Arts, and consequently had entered upon the particular discussion of the subsidising of the Théâtre-Français. At the noise I made opening the door of his room, M. Thiers raised his head. "Good!" he said, "I was expecting you." "I think not," I replied. "What do you mean?" "Because, if you had expected me, you would have known my reasons for coming, and would have forbidden my entrance." "And what are your reasons for coming?" "I have come simply to ask an explanation of the man who fails to keep his promise as a Minister." "You do not know, then, what passed in the Chambers?" "No! I only know what has happened at the Théâtre-Français." "I was obliged to suspend _Antony_." "Not to suspend, but to stop it." "To stop or to suspend...." "Do not mean the same thing." "Well, then, I was obliged to stop _Antony._" "Obliged? A Minister! How could a Minister be obliged to stop a piece which he had himself taken out of the hands of the prompter of another theatre, when, too, he had engaged his own box to see the first representation of that piece?" "Yes--obliged, I was compelled to do it!" "By the article in the _Constitutionnel?_" "Bah! if it had only been that article I should, indeed, have made myself a laughing-stock, although good ink went to the writing of it." "You call that good ink, do you? I defy you to suck M. Jay's [Étienne's] pen, without having an attack of the colic." "Well, call it bad ink, if you like ... But it was the Chamber!" "How do you make that out?" "Oh! I had the whole Chamber against me! If _Antony_ had been allowed to be played to-night, the Budget would not have passed." "The Budget would not have passed?" "No ... Remember that such people as Jay, Étienne, Viennet and so forth ... can command a hundred votes in the Chamber, a hundred people who vote like one man. I was pinned into a corner--'_Antony_ and no budget!' or, 'A budget and no _Antony_!' ... Ah! my boy, remain a dramatic author and take good care never to become a Minister!" "Oh! come! do you really think matters can rest thus?"