day of activity. The group of novels belonging to
this period, the climax of what may be called her second career, is
sufficiently remarkable for a novelist who was almost a sexagenarian,
including _Elle et Lui_, _L'Homme de Neige_, _La Ville Noire_,
_Constance Verrier_, _Le Marquis de Villemer_ and _Valvedre_. _Elle et
Lui_, in which George Sand at last broke silence in her own defense on
the subject of her rupture with Alfred de Musset, first appeared in the
_Revue des Deux Mondes_, 1859. Though many of the details are
fictitious, the author here told the history of her relations with the
deceased poet much too powerfully for her intention to be mistaken or to
escape severe blame. That a magnanimous silence would have been the
nobler course on her part towards the child of genius whose good genius
she had so signally failed to be, need not be disputed. It must be
remembered, however, that De Musset on his side had not refrained during
his lifetime from denouncing in eloquent verse the friend he had
quarreled with, and satirizing her in pungent prose. Making every
possible allowance for poetical figures of speech, he had said enough to
provoke her to retaliate. It is impossible to suppose that there was not
another side to such a question. But Madame Sand could not defend
herself without accusing her lost lover. She often proved herself a
generous adversary--too generous, indeed, for her own advantage--and in
this instance it was clearly not for her own sake that she deferred her
apology.

It is even conceivable that the poet, when in a just frame of mind, and
not seeking inspiration for his _Nuit de Mai_ or _Histoire d'un Merle
blanc_, would not have seen in _Elle et Lui_ a falsification of the
spirit of their history. The theorizing of the outside world in such
matters is of little worth; but the novel bears, conspicuously among
Madame Sand's productions, the stamp of a study from real life, true in
its leading features. And the conduct of the heroine, Therese, though
accounted for and eloquently defended, is by no means, as related,
ideally blameless. After an attachment so strong as to induce a
seriously-minded person, such as she is represented, to throw aside for
it all other considerations, the hastiness with which, on discovering
her mistake, she entertains the idea of bestowing her hand, if not her
heart, on another, is an exhibition of feminine inconsequence which no
amount of previous misconduct on the part