Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-05-15

kangaroo fashion, was badly dressed I;
had an unwashed, unkempt. unbrushed
look altogether, and she assumed a tone
OF superiority over me which / was not
then aware was warranted by her I'M
doubted leadership. From first to last she
put up my mental bristles, so that / re-
Jected then and there what might have
become closer acquaintance had 1 not
been so blind and so much Influenced by
her want Of conventional graces.
SPOILED BY SUCCESS.
"As i was never an habituee OF John
Chapman's famous evenings, and knew
him and his wife best when they lived
out OF London, and before they took
their Strand house, l saw but little Of
Marian Evans, till after her flight with
George Lewes. When they returned
home l called on them by their joint re-
quest. They were in lodgings in ST.
Johns Wood, and the aureole OF their
new love was around them. There was
none or the pretence OF a sanctioned
union, which came afterward-none of
the somewhat pretentious assumption OF
superior morality which was born of her
success. She was frank, genial, natural,
and brimful of happiness. The con-
seriousness that she had finally made her
choice and cast the die which determined
her fate gave her a nobility Of expression
and grandeur Of bearing which she
had not had when first knew her. Then
my heart warmed to her with mingled
love and admiration, and / paid her the
homage she deserved. j felt her super
iority. and Acknowledged IL with en-
thusiasm.
Had she always remained on this level
she would have been the grandest wo-
man of this or any age. But success and
Affln Cd Ill
simplicity, all sincerity Of character. She
grew TO be artificial, posee, pretentious,
unreal. She lived an unreal life all
through, both mentally and socially. and
in her endeavor to harmonize two ire
concilables-to be at once conventional
and insurgent-the upholder OF the sane
tity of marriage while living as the wife
OF married MANTLE Self-reliant law
breaker and the eager postulant for the
recognition granted only to the coyen-
anted-she lost every trace of that
finer freedom and whole-heartedness
which had been so remarkable in the
beginning OF her connection with Lewes.
She was a made woman-no. in the
French sense-but made by sef-manipula-
ton, as one makes a statue or
vase. have never known any one who
seemed to me so purely artificial as
George Eliot. She took a fine type for
imitation, but the result was not flesh
and blood woman. Not a line OF spon-
taneity was left in her, not an impulse
beyond the reach Of self-conscious philos-
ophy. not an unguarded trace or mental
or moral territory where a little I'M
trained folly might luxuriate"
GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
The life story Of Guy de Maupassant is
that OF a man who wrote for many years
under the critical eye and unsparing
structures OF a stern master. who bade
him tear up his manuscripts only 10
write again. And yet 1t is the story OF
one whose first published tale created a
sensation and brought him fame; who
leaped at once from comparative obscu-
rity into the foremost ranks OF the great
est living French authors. and who, by
the very force Of his genius, compelled
recognition not only as a master OF the
art OF writing but in analysis OF the
complex emotions that shape human &C
ton. To De Maupassant in the realm OF
the story nothing was impossible. The
man who could write in light and play
full fancy Les Epingles." could touch the
depths of misery in LIE Horla," and 10
him the step from the debasing and pro-
scribed "Une Vie" TO the purest tales OF
most beautiful sentiment was the strange
contradiction of most wonderful mind.
The remarkable feature OF the life OF
De Maupassant Is easily suggested In
the application OF the subject matter OF
his own stories to his own personal emo
tons as evidenced by his actions. A
man OF the most fantastic words, super
induced by the greatest excuses and by
indulgence in the dangerous stinulants
that must surely overthrow the reason. II
is not strange that De Maupassant lived
In actual existence both the sweets and
horrors of his stories. Naturally he was
a man OF the kindlest impulse. and all
the goodness and pathos that from time
to time appear In his writings were his
normal inheritance. Vitiated ~ his taste