that you must always praise the work of a writer you like.
But I think one has the option of silence--partial at any rate.

[237] If anybody pleads for Louis Bertrand of _Gaspard de la Nuit_ as a
thirdsman, I should accept him gladly, though he is even farther from
the novel-norm than Gerard himself. I once had the pleasure of bringing
him to the knowledge of the late Lord Houghton, who, the next time I met
him, ejaculated, "I've got him, and covered him all over with moons and
stars as he deserves." I hope Lord Crewe has the copy. (For Baudelaire's
still less novelish following of _Gaspard_, see below. As far as style
goes, both would enter this chapter "by acclamation.")

[238] This has been already referred to above. After one of the
abscondences or disappearances brought about by his madness, he was
found dead--hanging to a balcony, or outside stair, or lamp-post, or
what not, in one of those purlieus of Old Paris which were afterwards
swept away, but which Hugo and Meryon have preserved for us in different
forms of "black and white." Suicide, as always in such cases, is the
orthodox word in this, and may be correct. But some of his friends were
inclined to think that he had been the victim of pure murderous sport on
the part of the gangs of _voyous_, ancestors of the later "apaches," who
infested the capital.

[239] The quality will not be sought in vain by those who read Mr.
Lang's own poems--there are several--on and from Gerard.

[240] "Perhaps not, my dear; perhaps not."

[241] What, I suppose, is the "standard" edition--that of the so-called
_Oeuvres Completes_--contains them all, but with some additions and more
omissions to and from the earlier issues. And the individual pieces,
especially _Sylvie_, which is to be more fully dealt with here than any
other, are subjected to a good deal of rehandling.

[242] I may be taken to task for rendering _lisiere_ "fringes," but the
actual English equivalent "list" is not only ambiguous, not only too
homely in its specific connotation, but wrong in rhythm. And "selvage,"
escaping the first and last objections, may be thought to incur the
middle one. Moreover, while both words signify a well-defined edge,
_lisiere_ has a sense--special enough to be noted in dictionaries--of
the looser-planted border of trees and shrubs which almost literally
"fringes" a regular forest.

[243] _Angelique_, which used to head _Les Filles du Feu_, in front of
_Sylvie_, but was after