TRATIONS BY JAN BERG, J. BARNARD DAVIS, AND E. M. JESSOP.

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M. and Madame Alphonse Daudet--for it is impossible to mention the great
French writer without also immediately recalling the personality of the
lady who has been his best friend, his tireless collaboratrice, and his
constant companion during the last twenty-five years--have made their
home on the top storey of a fine stately house in the Rue de Belle
Chasse, a narrow old-world street running from the Boulevard Saint
Germain up into the Quartier Latin.

[Illustration: MADAME DAUDET.]

Like most houses on the left bank of the Seine, the "hotel" is built
round a large courtyard, the Daudets' pretty _appartement_ being
situated on the side furthest from the street, and commanding a splendid
view of Southern Paris, whilst in the immediate foreground is one of
those peaceful, quiet gardens, owned by some of the old Paris religious
foundations still left undisturbed by the march of Republican time.

The study in which Alphonse Daudet does all his work, and receives his
more intimate friends, is opposite the hall door, but a strict watch is
kept by Madame Daudet's faithful servants, and no one is allowed to
break in upon the privacy of _le maitre_ without some good and
sufficient reason. Few writers are so personally popular with their
readers as is Alphonse Daudet; there is about most of his books a
strange magnetic charm, and every post brings him quaint, curious, and
often pathetic, epistles from men and women all over the world, and of
every nationality, discussing his characters, suggesting alterations,
offering him plots, and asking his advice on their own most intimate
cases of conscience, whilst, if he were to grant all the requests for
personal interviews which come to him day by day, he would literally
have not a moment for work or leisure.

[Illustration: DAUDET AT WORK.]

But to those who have the good fortune of his acquaintance, M. Daudet is
the most delightful and courteous of hosts, and, though rarely alluding
to his own work in conversation, he will always answer those questions
put to him to the best of his ability, and as one who has thought much
and deeply on most subjects of human interest.

The first glance shows you that Daudet's study is a real work room;
there is no straining after effect; the plain, comfortable furniture,
including the large solid writing table covered with papers, proofs,
literary biblots, and the va