ame, let alone his writings: yet he is worthy of being
remembered by both. He had--what a great many French writers of talent,
far greater than his own, essentially lack--humour. True, the latter was
not subtle; but it was rarely, if ever, coarse. The nearest approach to
him among the journalists of the present day is M. Francisque Sarcey;
but the eminent dramatic critic has had a better education.
Nevertheless, if Lireux had finished as he began, he would not be so
entirely forgotten. Unfortunately for his fame, if not for his material
welfare, he took it into his head to become a millionnaire, and he
almost succeeded; at any rate, he died very well off, in a beautiful
villa at Bougival.

I remember meeting with Lireux almost immediately after he landed in
Paris, at the end of '40 or the beginning of '41. He came, I believe,
from Rouen; though, but for his accent, he might have come from
Marseilles. Tall, well-built, with brown hair and beard and ruddy
complexion, a pair of bright eyes behind a pair of golden spectacles,
very badly dressed, though his clothes were almost new, very loud and
very restless, his broad-brimmed hat cocked on one side, he gave one the
impression of what in Paris we used to call a "departemental oracle."
He was that to a certain extent, still he was not really pompous, and
the feeling of discomfort one experienced at first soon wore off. He was
not altogether unknown among the better class of journalists in the
capital, for it appears that he frequently contributed to the Paris
papers from the provinces. He had a fair knowledge of the French drama
theoretically, for he had never written a piece, and openly stated his
intention never to do so. But in virtue of his dramatic criticisms in
several periodicals--which, in spite of the difference in education
between the two men, read uncommonly like the articles of M. Sarcey in
the _Temps_--and his unwavering faith in his lucky star, he considered
himself destined not only to lift the Odeon from the slough in which it
had sunk, but to make it a formidable rival to the house in the Rue de
Richelieu. He had no ambition beyond that. The Odeon was really at its
lowest depth. Harel had enjoyed a subsidy of 130,000 francs, M. d'Epagny
eleven years later had to content himself with less than half, and yet
the authorities were fully cognizant of the necessity of a second
Theatre-Francais. Whether from incapacity or ill-luck, M. d'Epagny did
not succeed in b