He told me that Disraeli had made money by entrusting the Rothschilds with the purchase of the Suez Canal shares.

It seemed to me strange that this statement, if true, had never been set forth authoritatively; but the story was peculiarly modern, and had possibilities in it.

Oscar admitted afterwards that he had taken the idea and used it in "An Ideal Husband." It was in this summer also that he wrote "The Importance of Being Earnest," his finest play.

He went to the seaside and completed it, he said, in three weeks, and, when I spoke of the delight he must feel at having two plays performed in London at the same time, he said: "Next year, Frank, I may have four or five; I could write one every two months with the greatest ease.

It all depends on money.