rful drama. George
Sand had no wit, and Dumas _fils_ was full of it. It was he who put into
the dialogue those little sayings which are so easily recognized as his.

"What do the doctors say?" is asked, and the reply comes:

"What do the doctors say? Well, they say just what they know: they say
nothing."

"My brother declares that the air of Paris is the only air he can
breathe," says another character.

"Congratulate him for me on his lungs," remarks his interlocutor.

"Her husband was a baron . . ." remarks some one.

"Who is not a baron at present?" answers another person.

A certain elderly governess is being discussed.

"Did you not know her?"

"Mademoiselle Artemise? No, monsieur."

"Have you ever seen an albatross?"

"No, never."

"Not even stuffed? Oh, you should go to the Zoo. It is a curious
creature, with its great beak ending in a hook. . . . It eats all day
long. . . . Well, Mademoiselle Artemise, etc. . . ."

The _Marquis de Villemer_ is in its place in the series of George Sand's
plays, and is quite in accordance with the general tone of her theatre.
It is like the _Mariage de Victorine_ over again. This time Victorine is
a reader, who gets herself married by a Marquis named Urbain. He is of a
gloomy disposition, so that she will not enjoy his society much, but she
will be a Marquise. Victorine and Caroline are both persons who know how
to make their way in the world. When they have a son, I should be very
much surprised if they allowed him to make a _mesalliance_.

George Sand was one of the persons f or whom Dumas _fils_ had the
greatest admiration. As a proof of this, a voluminous correspondence
between them exists. It has not yet been published, but there is a
possibility that it may be some day. I remember, when talking with Dumas
_fils_, the terms in which he always spoke of "la mere Sand," as he
called her in a familiar but filial way. He compared her to his father,
and that was great praise indeed from him. He admired in her, too, as
he admired in his father, that wealth of creative power and immense
capacity for uninterrupted work. As a proof of this admiration, we have
only to turn to the preface to _Le Fils naturel_, in which Dumas is so
furious with the inhabitants of Palaiseau. George Sand had taken up her
abode at Palaiseau, and Dumas had been trying in vain to discover her
address in the district, when he came across one of the natives, who
replied as follows: "George Sand?