ary leavings would have been useful to his little
Jeanne's father-in-law, for it will be remembered that Leon Daudet, the
novelist's eldest child, married some three years ago "Peach Blossom"
Hugo, for whom was written _L'Art d'etre Grand-pere_.

Although M. Daudet takes precious care of his little note-books, both
past and present, he has never troubled himself much as to what became
of the fair copies of his novels. They remain in the printers' and
publishers' hands, and will probably some day attain a fabulous value.

His handwriting is clear, and somewhat feminine in form, and he always
uses a steel pen. Till his health broke down he wrote every word of his
manuscripts himself, but of late he has been obliged to dictate to his
wife and two secretaries; re-writing, however, much of his work in the
margin of the manuscript, and also adding to, and polishing, each
chapter in proof, for no writer pays more attention to style and
chiselled form than the man who has been called the French Dickens, and
whose compositions, to the uninitiated, would seem to be singularly
spontaneous.

Since the war M. Daudet has never had an hour's sleep without artificial
aid, such as chloral; but devotees of Lady Nicotine will be interested
to learn that in answer to a question he once said, "I have smoked a
great deal while working, and the more I smoked the better I worked. I
have never noticed that tobacco is injurious, but I must admit that,
when I am not well, even the smell of a cigarette is odious." He added
that he had a great horror of alcohol as a stimulant for work, and has
ofttimes been heard to say that those who believe in working on spirits
had better make up their minds to become total abstainers if they hope
to achieve anything in the way of literature.

Unlike most literary _menages_, M. and Madame Daudet are one of those
happy couples who are said by cynics to be the exceptions which prove
the rule. Literary men are proverbially unlucky in their helpmates; and
geniuses have been proved again and again to reserve their fitful
humours and uncertain tempers for home use. M. and Madame Daudet are at
once sympathetic, literary partners, and the happiest of married
couples; in _L'Enfance d'une Parisienne_, _Enfants et Meres_, and
_Fragments d'un Livre Inedit_, Madame Daudet has proved that she is in
her own way as original and delicate an artist as her husband. She has
never written a novel, but, as a great French critic on