"It is surely a year since I last had this pleasure ?" "Nay, Madame, you flatter me," said Dalrymple.

"I have been absent only five months." "Then, you see, I have measured your absence by my loss." Dalrymple bowed profoundly.
Rachel turned to a young man behind her chair.
"Monsieur le Prince," said she, "do you know what is rumored in the _foyer_ of the Francais?
That you have offered me your hand!" "I offer you both my hands, in applause, Madame, every night of your performance," replied the gentleman so addressed.
She smiled and made a feint at him with the dagger.
"Excellent!" said she.

"One is not enough for a tragedian But where is Alphonse Karr ?" "I have been looking for him all the evening," said a tall man, with an iron-gray beard.

"He told me he was coming; but authors are capricious beings--the slaves of the pen." "True; he lives by his pen--others die by it," said Rachel bitterly.

"By the way, has any one seen Scribe's new Vaudeville ?" "I have," replied a bald little gentleman with a red and green ribbon in his button-hole.
"And your verdict ?" "The plot is not ill-conceived; but Scribe is only godfather to the piece.