On returning to Paris I went to give news of him to ——.
---- said to me: 'But all that is quite absurd. He is quite incapable of bearing the ennui. I know him so well. He writes to me every day. I also am of opinion that he ought to finish his play first, but after that he will come back here. He has never done anything good in solitude; he needs to be constantly drawn out of himself. It is by my side that he has written all his best work. Besides, just look at his last letter.'
He thereupon read it to me. In it Wilde begged —— to let him finish his Pharaoh in [Pg 78]peace, but, in effect, the letter implied that as soon as his play was written he would come back, he would find him again; and it ended with these boastful words, 'and then I shall be once more the King of Life.'