Did this do the drama much good? I have my doubts about it; I have already expressed my opinion upon the pleasure the public takes in making the reputation of an unknown young man at the expense of established reputations. Two years went by, during which _La Tour de Nesle_ ran its two to three hundred performances. I thought no more about the old quarrel; I had only published _Gaule et France_ during those two years--a very incomplete work, from the point of view of science, but singularly noteworthy from the point of view of the prediction with which it ends--and had _Angèle_ performed, when, one morning, a friend of mine (friends are very useful sometimes, as we are about to see), came into my room when I was still in bed, and, after a few preliminary words, asked me if I had read _Le Musée des Familles._ I looked at him with an obviously astonished air. "_Le Musée des Familles_?" I asked. "On what grounds should I have read that paper?" "Because it contains an article by M. Gaillardet." "So much the better for _Le Musée des Familles."_ "An article on _La Tour de Nesle_." "Ah! an article on the drama?" "No, on the tower." "Well, how does that affect me?" "Because in M. Gaillardet's article on the tower he speaks of the play." "Well, what does he say? Come to the point." "He says it is his best drama." "He ought to be ashamed of himself. It is one of my best, he means." "You ought to read it." "What is the good?" "Because it may perhaps have to be replied to." "M. Gaillardet's article?" "Yes." "Do you think so?..." "Good heavens! Read it." I called Louis. The servant I then had was called Louis; he was a droll fellow whom I found drunk from time to time, when I returned home at night, and who gave as an excuse that as he had to fight a duel the next morning he must drown his thoughts. I hurried him away to Henry Berthoud, the publisher of _Le Musée des Familles,_ with a message asking him to send me the number which contained M. Gaillardet's article. Louis returned with the required number, and this is what I read "LA TOUR DE NESLE