: Parisian Points of View by Hal Vy Ludovic Matthews Brander Commentator Matthews Edith Virginia Brander Translator - Paris (France) Fiction France

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INTRODUCTION vii ONLY A WALTZ 3 THE DANCING-MASTER 37 THE CIRCUS CHARGER 49 BLACKY 69 THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN PARIS 83 THE STORY OF A BALL-DRESS 113 THE INSURGENT 137 THE CHINESE AMBASSADOR 147 IN THE EXPRESS 161

INTRODUCTION

THE SHORT STORIES OF M. LUDOVIC HAL?VY

Nephew of the composer of "La Juive"--an opera not now heard as often as it deserves, perhaps--and son of a playwright no one of whose productions now survives, M. Hal?vy grew up in the theatre. At fourteen he was on the free-list of the Op?ra, the Op?ra-Comique, and the Od?on. After he left school and went into the civil service his one wish was to write plays, and so to be able to afford to resign his post. In the civil service he had an inside view of French politics, which gave him a distaste for the mere game of government without in any way impairing the vigor of his patriotism; as is proved by certain of the short stones dealing with the war of 1870 and the revolt of the Paris Communists. And while he did his work faithfully, he had spare hours to give to literature. He wrote plays and stories, and they were rejected. The manager of the Od?on declared that one early play of M. Hal?vy's was exactly suited to the Gymnase, and the manager of the Gymnase protested that it was exactly suited to the Od?on. The editor of a daily journal said that one early tale of M. Hal?vy's was too brief for a novel, and the editor of a weekly paper said that it was too long for a short story.

Obviously M. Hal?vy is fond of the actors and the actresses with whom he spent the years of his manhood. They appear again and again in his tales; and in his treatment of them there is never anything ungentlemanly as there was in M. Jean Richepin's recent volume of theatrical sketches. M. Hal?vy's liking for the men and women of the stage is deep; and wide is his knowledge of their changing moods. The young Criquette and the old Karikari and the aged Dancing-master--he knows them all thoroughly, and he likes them heartily, and he sympathizes with them cordially. Indeed, nowhere can one find more kindly portraits of the kindly player-folk than in the writings of this half-author of "Froufrou"; it is as though the successful dramatist felt ever grateful towards the partners of his toil, the companions of his struggles. He is not blind to their manifold weaknesses, nor is he the dupe of their easy emotionalism, but he is tolerant of their failings, and towards them, at least, his irony is never mordant.

To say this is to say that M. Hal?vy's irony is delicate and playful. There is no harshness in his manner and no hatred in his mind. We do not find in his pages any of the pessimism which is perhaps the dominant characteristic of the best French fiction of our time. To M. Hal?vy, as to every thinking man, life is serious, no doubt, but it need not be taken sadly, or even solemnly. To him life seems still enjoyable, as it must to most of those who have a vivid sense of humor. He is not disillusioned utterly, he is not reduced to the blankness of despair as are so many of the disciples of Flaubert, who are cast into the outer darkness, and who hopelessly revolt against the doom they have brought on themselves.

BRANDER MATTHEWS.

ONLY A WALTZ

"Aunt, dear aunt, don't believe a word of what he is going to tell you. He is preparing to fib, to fib outrageously. If I hadn't interrupted him at the beginning of his talk, he would have told you that he had made up his mind to marry me from his and my earliest childhood."

"Of course!" exclaimed Gontran.

"Of course not," replied Marceline. "He was going to tell you that he was a good little boy, having always loved his little cousin, and that our marriage was a delightful romance of tenderness and sweetness."

"Why, yes, of course," repeated Gontran.

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