"There is an interval of twenty-six years. The stage represents the same room; only, everything has grown older in twenty-six years, personages, furniture and hangings. The man whose face the audience saw, and whom Da Sylva denounced in a whisper to his daughter, as the executioner, is playing chess with Dr. Grey; Mrs. Grey is sewing; Richard, the child of the prologue, is, standing up writing; Jenny, the doctor's daughter, watches him as he writes." "Stay, that idea of everybody twenty-six years older is capital." "And then?" "Ah! plague take it! That is all there is," said Beudin. "What, you stop there?" "Yes ... the deuce! you know well enough that if the play were concluded we should not want your assistance!" "Quite so ... but still, you must have some idea concerning the rest of the play?" "Yes ... Richard has grown up under his father's care. Richard is ambitious, and wants to become a member of the House of Commons. Dr. Grey's influence can help him: he pretends to be in love with his daughter ... We will have the spectacle of an English election, which will be out of the common." "And then?" "Well then, you must invent the rest." "But, come, that means that there is nearly the whole thing to finish!" "Yes, very nearly ... But that won't trouble you!" "That's all very well; but, at this moment, I am busy on my drama, _Charles VII._, and I cannot give my mind to anything else." "Oh! there is no desperate hurry for it! meantime Goubaux will work away at it whilst I will do likewise ... You like the idea?" "Yes." "All right! when you return to Paris we will have a meeting at your house or at mine or at Goubaux's and we will fix our plans." "Granted, but on one condition." "What?" "That it shall be under your names and I shall remain behind the curtain." "Why so?" "Because, in the first place, the idea is not mine; and, secondly, because I have decided never to let my name be associated with any other name."[1] "Then we will withhold our names." "No, indeed! that is out of the question." "Very well, as you will! We will settle the point when we have come to it.... You will take half share?" "Why half, when there are three of us?" "Because we are leaving you the trouble of working out the plot." "I will compose the play if you wish; but I will only take a third of the profits." "We will discuss all that in Paris." "Precisely so! But do not forget that I make my reservations." "Then, this 24 July, at five o'clock in the afternoon, it is agreed that you, Goubaux and I shall write _Richard Darlington_ between us." "To-day, 24 July, my birthday, it is agreed, at five o'clock in the afternoon, that Goubaux, you and I shall write _Richard Darlington._" "Is to-day your birthday?" "I was twenty-nine at four o'clock this morning." "Bravo! that will bring us good luck!" "I hope so!" "When shall you be in Paris?" "About 15 August." "That will suit perfectly!"