ic man and maid, beginning in childhood, he was
curiously master. George Sand herself[537] has nothing to beat (if she
has anything to equal) the pairs of Taillevent and Riquette (in the
novel named from the lover), and of Vincinet and Lalie (in _Toussaint
Galabru_). As for his pictures of clerical cabals and clerical
weaknesses, they may be too much of a good thing for some tastes; but
that they are a good thing, both as an exercise in craftsmanship and as
an alternative to the common run of French novel subjects, can hardly be
denied. In this respect, and not in this respect only, M. Fabre has his
own place, and that no low one.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Andre Theuriet.]

In coming to M. Andre Theuriet I felt a mixture of curiosity with a
slight uneasiness. For I had read not a few of his books[538] carefully
and critically at their first appearance, and in such cases--when novels
are not of the _very_ first order (which, good as these are, I think few
really critical readers would allot them) nor possessed of those
"oddments" of appeal which sometimes make more or less inferior books
readable and readable again--fresh acquaintance, after a long time, is
dangerous. It has been said here (possibly more than once) that, when a
book possesses this peculiar readableness, a second reading is
positively beneficial to it, because you neglect the "knots in the reed"
and slip along it easily. This is not quite the case with others: and,
unless great critical care is taken, a new acquaintance, itself thirty
years old, has, I fear, a better chance than an old one renewed after
that time. However, the knight of Criticism, as of other ladies,[539]
must dare any adventure, and ought to be able to bring the proper arms
and methods to the task. For the purposes of renewal I chose
_Sauvageonne_, _Le Fils Maugars_, and _Raymonde_. With the first, though
I did not remember much more than its central situation and its
catastrophe, with one striking incident, I do remember being originally
pleased; the second has, I believe, at least sometimes, been thought
Theuriet's masterpiece; and the third (which, by the way, is a
"philippine" containing another story besides the title-one) is an early
book which I had not previously read.

[Sidenote: _Sauvageonne._]

The argument of _Sauvageonne_ can be put very shortly. A young man of
four-and-twenty, of no fortune, marries a rich widow ten years older
than himself