implored Musset. In her diary, dated December 24, 1834, we read: "And
what if I rushed to him when my love is too strong for me. What if I
went and broke the bell-pull with ringing, until he opened his door to
me. Or if I lay down across the threshold until he came out!" She cut
off her magnificent hair and sent it to him. Such was the way in which
this proud woman humbled herself. She was a prey to love, which seemed
to her a holy complaint. It was a case of Venus entirely devoted to her
prey. The question is, was this really love? "I no longer love you," she
writes, "but I still adore you. I do not want you any more, but I cannot
do without you." They had the courage to give each other up finally in
March, 1835.

It now remains for us to explain the singularity of this adventure,
which, as a matter of fact, was beyond all logic, even the logic of
passion. It is, however, readily understood, if we treat it as a case
of acute romanticism, the finest case of romanticism, that has been
actually lived, which the history of letters offers us.

The romanticism consists first in exposing one's life to the public, in
publishing one's most secret joys and sorrows. From the very beginning
George Sand and Musset took the whole circle of their friends into their
confidence. These friends were literary people. George Sand specially
informs Sainte-Beuve that she wishes her sentimental life from
thenceforth to be known. They were quite aware that they were on show,
as it were, subjects of an experiment that would be discussed by "the
gallery."

Romanticism consists next in the writer putting his life into his
books, making literature out of his emotions. The idea of putting their
adventure into a story occurred to the two lovers before the adventure
had come to an end. It was at Venice that George Sand wrote her first
_Lettres d'un voyageur_, addressed to the poet--and to the subscribers
of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. Musset, to improve on this idea, decides
to write a novel from the episode which was still unfinished. "I will
not die," he says, "until I have written my book on you and on myself,
more particularly on you. No, my beautiful, holy fiancee, you shall not
return to this cold earth before it knows the woman who has walked on
it. No, I swear this by my youth and genius." Musset's contributions to
this literature were _Confession d'un enfant du siecle_, _Histoire d'un
merle blanc_, _Elle et Lui_, and all that followed.