Some days later, as I was reading the romance of Guilhem de Castro, I came across an incident which became the tableau where the consoling apparition appears to the Cid as he is in tears--the second tableau in the third act. I was inspired to this by the apparition of Jesus to Saint Julien the Hospitalier. I continued my work on _Le Cid_ wherever I happened to be, as the performances of _Manon_ took me to the provincial theaters where they alternated it with _Hérodiade_ both in France and abroad. I wrote the ballet for _Le Cid_ at Marseilles during a rather long stay there. I was very comfortably established in my room, at the Hotel Beauveau, with its long latticed windows which looked out on the old port. The prospect was actually fairylike. This room was decorated with remarkable panels and mirrors, and when I expressed my astonishment at seeing them so well preserved, the proprietor told me that the room was an object of special care because Paganini, Alfred de Musset and George Sand had all lived there once upon a time. The cult of memories sometimes reaches the point of fetishism. It was spring. My room was scented with bunches of carnations which my friends in Marseilles sent me every day. When I say friends, the word is too weak; perhaps it is necessary to go to mathematics to get the word, and even then? The friends in Marseilles heaped upon me consideration, attention and endless kindness. That is the country where they sweeten the coffee by placing it outside on the balcony, for the sea is made of honey! Before I left the kind hospitality of this Phocean city, I received the following letter from the directors of the Opéra, Ritt and Gailhard: "My dear Friend, "Can you set the day and hour for your reading of Le Cid? "In friendship, "E. Ritt." But I had brought from Paris keen anguish about the distribution of the parts. I wanted the sublime Mme. Fidès Devriès to create the part of Chimène, but they said that since her marriage she no longer wanted to appear on the stage. I also depended on my friends Jean and Edouard de Reszke, who came to Paris especially to talk about _Le Cid_. They were aware of my plans for them. How many times I climbed the stairs of the Hotel Scribe where they lived! At last the contracts were signed and finally the reading took place as the Opéra requested.