th a companion picture of two lovers bathing at night; _Pile
ou Face_ (a girl who is so divided between two lovers that a friend
advises her to toss up, with the pessimist-satiric addition that no
doubt, between tossing and marriage, she will be sorry she did not take
the other, but afterwards will forget all about him) is slighter; and
_Au Docteur J. P._ looks like a kind of study for a longer novel or at
least a more elaborate novel-hero.[379]

[Sidenote: _Affaire Clemenceau._]

And so, at last, we may come to the book which curiously carries out,
with a slight deflection, but an almost equivalent intensification, of
meaning, what has been observed before of others--the singular habit
which Dumas _fils_ has of quickening up for the run-in. This book was,
I believe, in all important respects actually his run-in for the
novel-prize; and what he had hitherto shown in the conduct of individual
books he now showed in regard to his whole novel-list, betaking himself
thenceforward, though he had nearly a third of a century to live, to the
theatre, to pamphlets, etc. Against _Affaire Clemenceau_[380] there are
some things to be said, and in criticism, not necessarily hostile, a
great many about it. But nobody who knows strength when he sees it can
deny that this is a strong book from start to finish. I can very well
remember the hubbub it caused when it first appeared, and the debates
about "Tue-la!" but I did not then read it, having, as I have confessed,
a sort of prejudice--not then or at any time common with me--against the
author--a prejudice strengthened rather than weakened by reviews of the
book. What did I care (I am bound to say that I might add, "What _do_ I
care?") about discussions whether if somebody breaks the Seventh
Commandment to your discomfort you may break the Sixth to theirs? Did I
want diatribes on the non-moral character of women, or anything of that
sort? I wanted an interesting story; an attractive (no matter in what
fashion) heroine; a hero who is a gentleman, if possible, a man anyhow;
and I did not think I should find them here. _Now_, I can "dichotomise"
to some extent; and I can get an interesting story, striking moments, if
not exactly an attractive heroine or hero, at any rate such as take
their part in the interest, though I may have crows to pluck with them.
It is, once more, a strong book: it is nearly--though I do not think
quite--a great book. And to all sportsmanlike lovers of letters it