Qui sont assez eclatants
Pour n'avoir pas trop d'alarmes
De ces ravages du temps.'

"Have the courage to analyze great emotions to create characters who shall
be lofty and true. The whole art of the analytical novel lies there."

As he spoke the master had such a light of intellectual certainty in his
eyes that to me he seemed the embodiment of one of those great characters
he had been urging me to describe. It made me feel that the theory of this
man, himself almost a sexagenarian, that at any age one may inspire love,
was not unreasonable! The contrast between the world of ideas in which he
moved and the atmosphere of the literary shop in which for the last few
months I had been stifling was too strong. The dreams of my youth were
realized in this man whose gifts remained unimpaired after the production
of thirty volumes and whose face, growing old, was a living illustration
of the beautiful saying: "Since we must wear out, let us wear out nobly."
His slender figure bespoke the austerity of long hours of work; his firm
mouth showed his decision of character; his brow, with its deep furrows,
had the paleness of the paper over which he so often bent; and yet, the
refinement of his hands, so well cared for, the sober elegance of his
dress and an aristocratic air that was natural to him showed that the
finer professional virtues had been cultivated in the midst of a life of
frivolous temptations. These temptations had been no more of a disturbance
to his ethical and spiritual nature than the academic honors, the
financial successes, the numerous editions that had been his. Withal he
was an awfully good fellow, for, after having talked at great length with
me, he ended by saying, "Since you are staying in Nemours I hope to see
you often, and to-day I cannot let you go without presenting you to my
hostess."