ense to cut this
out. The management of the outsiders mentioned above contrasts
remarkably in point of art with the similar things which, as noted (_v.
sup._ pp. 93-4), do _not_ improve _Ines de las Sierras_.

[230] He blue-spectacled, she black-veiled.

[231] Uncarpeted and polished, French fashion, of course.

[232] Merimee represents his Englishman (and an Englishman who can read
Greek, too!) as satisfied with, and ordering a second bottle of, an
extemporised "port" made of ratafia, "quinze sous" _ordinaire_, and
brandy! This could deceive few Englishmen; and (till very recent years)
absolutely no Englishman who could read Greek at a fairly advanced
period of life. From most of the French Novelists of the time it would
not surprise us; but from Merimee, who was constantly visiting England
and had numerous English friends, it is a little odd. It may have been
done _lectoris gratia_ (but hardly _lectricis_), to suit what even the
other novelists just mentioned occasionally speak of as the _Anglais de
vaudeville_.

[233] I use this adverb from no trade-jealously: for I have made as many
translations myself as I have ever wished to do, and have always been
adequately paid for them. But there is no doubt that the competition of
amateur translation too often, on the one hand, reduces fees to sweating
point, and on the other affects the standard of competence rather
disastrously. I once had to review a version of _Das Kalte Herz_, in
which the wicked husband persecuted his wife with a "_pitcher_,"
_Peitsche_ being so translated by the light of nature, or the darkness
of no dictionary.

[234] Professed renderings of Spanish plays which never existed. _La
Guzla_--a companion volume with an audacious anagrammatising of "Gazul,"
etc., etc.--is a collection of pure ballads similarly attributed to a
non-existent Slav poet, Hyacinthe Maglanovich. Both, in their influence
on the Romantic movement, were only second to the work of actual
English, German, and Spanish predecessors, and may rank with that of
Nodier.

[235] Of the collection definitely called _Nouvelles_.

[236] I have left the shortest story in the volume, _Croisilles_, to a
note. It has, I believe, been rather a favourite with some, but it seems
to me that almost anybody could have written it, as far as anything but
the mere writing goes. Nor shall I criticise _Mimi Pinson_ and other
things at length. I cannot go so far as a late friend of mine, who
maintained