do not say that the gift is hereditary); and there are those who do not
know at once--and these will never know. You are a dramatist, or you are
not; neither will-power nor work has anything to do with it. The gift is
indispensable. I think that every one whom you may ask how to write a
play will reply, if he really can write one, that he doesn't know how it
is done. It is a little as if you were to ask Romeo what he did to fall
in love with Juliet and to make her love him; he would reply that he did
not know, that it simply happened.

Truly yours,

A. Dumas _fils_.

* * * * *




V.

From Edmond Gondinet.


My dear friend:

What is my way of working? It is deplorable. Do not recommend it to any
one. When the idea for a play occurs to me, I never ask myself whether
it will be possible to make a masterpiece out of it; I ask whether the
subject will be amusing to treat. A little pleasure in this life tempts
me a great deal more than a bust, even of marble, after I am gone. With