ns by admitting a mutual friend, Mr. A.
W. Pamplin, into our confidence. If M. Zola's communications with Paris,
through Wareham and myself, should be threatened, Mr. Pamplin was to take
upon himself the duty of re-establishing them.

At M. Zola's house there was, so far as I am aware, but one brief
_alerte_. This occurred one afternoon, when a servant came to my daughter
with the tidings that there was a French hunchback at the door. Violette
impulsively rushed off to tell M. Zola of it; but when in her turn she
went to the door to see who the person might be, she found that he was an
Englishman, a traveller for some county directory, who had merely
performed his legitimate work in requesting to know the name of the
occupier of the house. Of course the only name given was that of the
owner, then absent at the seaside.

Thus the hot days sped by peacefully enough. M. Zola had at least found
occupation and quietude, though it was naturally impossible that he
should feel content with his lot. Each day brought more and more home to
him the consciousness that he was in exile, and that contumely had been
his reward for seeking to save France from the shame of a great crime.

I have previously mentioned that during the first week or so of his
sojourn in England he had refused to look at newspapers and--at least so
it seemed to me--had sought to banish the Dreyfus affair and his own
troubles from his mind, much as one might seek to drive away a hateful
nightmare. But before long he again fell under the spell and followed the
course of events with the keenest interest. And again and again, reading
of the great battle being waged in France, he longed to return home, and
grew restless and impatient.

Moreover a complaint from which he has suffered on and off for some years
troubled him on more than one occasion. He always rallied, however, and
returned to his work with renewed energy. 'Fecondite' was already taking
shape in the leafy solitude in which he dwelt. And undoubtedly the steady
task of creation, resumed morning by morning, greatly helped him to quiet
the anguish of heart which the course of events in France would otherwise
have rendered intolerable.

NOTE.--While this work was appearing serially in the 'Evening
News' I received numerous letters from readers interested in
various matters mentioned by me. With respect to the foregoing
chapter, a lady living at Staines wrote saying that she was
looking out