ll be severer,
and when those who write it consult documents as I did, they will not
treat him with the deference I used.

"General Gallifet is also my enemy. Do you know why? Because I have not
mentioned him."

"How does your 'Debacle' sell now, _cher maitre_?"

[Illustration: STUDY CORNER.]

"Not so well as at the beginning, and the cause of it is the Panama
scandal. When the unscrupulousness of a certain class of men was made
bare, the initiators of the enquiry were accused by a section of the
nation with want of patriotism. Curiously enough, the same accusation
was levelled against my book, therefore, instead of being thanked for
the courage I had of disclosing the evils, I am punished for it. The
same influences acted against me in the last Academy elections. Before
the Panama affair, I was certain to have a chair."

"Will you continue presenting yourself?"

"Certainly, until I get a seat. There is no reason why I should be
excluded from that body, and if I abstain from presenting my
candidature, it might be construed as an admission on my part that I
considered justified the action of the academicians against me."

"When is your novel about 'Lourdes' going to appear?"

"Later than you think. I am working at present at Dr. Pascal, which
closes my series of the Rougon Macquart novels."

"Would it be indiscreet to ask you what subject you intend treating this
time?"

"No. It will be a philosophical and scientific defence of the principal
work of my life--the twenty volumes of the Rougon Macquarts. You see I
attach the greatest importance to this, and therefore give special
attention to my work, which is meant to be a justification of my
theories and _hardiesses_. After this I'll take 'Lourdes' in hand.
'Lourdes' will be followed by 'Rome,' and then by 'Paris.' They will
form a triptych."

[Illustration: EMILE ZOLA.]

"Namely?"

"Well, in the first I shall try to prove that the great scientific
development of our time has inspired hopes in the mind of all classes,
hopes which it has not realised to the satisfaction of the most
impressionable, therefore the most exacting and unreasonable minds. How
such minds have returned with greater conviction to the belief in the
existence of something more powerful than science, a something which can
alleviate the evils from which they suffer, or imagine they do.

"Among these there may even be social philanthropists, who may think
that divine intercession is mo