ve and his wife are in love
with each other. There are various alternatives for him. He can dismiss
his rival, kill him, or merely pardon him. Each alternative is a very
ordinary way out of the difficulty, and Jacques cannot resign himself to
anything ordinary. He therefore asks his wife's lover whether he really
cares for his wife, whether he is in earnest, and also whether this
attachment will be durable. Quite satisfied with the result of this
examination, he leaves Fernande to Octave. He then disappears and kills
himself, but he takes all necessary precautions to avert the suspicion
of suicide, in order not to sadden Octave and Fernande in their
happiness. He had not been able to keep his wife's love, but he does not
wish to be the jailer of the woman who no longer loves him. Fernande
has a right to happiness and, as he has not been able to ensure that
happiness, he must give place to another man. It is a case of suicide
as a duty. There are instances when a husband should know that it is his
duty to disappear. . . . Jacques is "a stoic." George Sand has a great
admiration for such characters. She gives us her first sketch of one in
Ralph, but Jacques is presented to us as a sublime being.

Personally, I look upon him as a mere greenhorn, or, as would be said in
Wagner's dramas, a "pure simpleton."

He did everything to ruin his home life. His young wife had confidence
in him; she was gay and naive. He went about, folding his arms in a
tragic way. He was absent-minded and gloomy, and she began to be awed by
him. One day, when, in her sorrow for having displeased him, she flung
herself on her knees, sobbing, instead of lifting her up tenderly, he
broke away from her caresses, telling her furiously to get up and never
to behave in such a way again in his presence. After this he puts his
sister, the "bronze woman," between them, and he invites Octave to live
with them. When he has thus destroyed his wife's affection for him, in
spite of the fact that at one time she wished for nothing better than
to love him, he goes away and gives up the whole thing. All that is too
easy. One of Meilhac's heroines says to a man, who declares that he is
going to drown himself for her sake, "Oh yes, that is all very fine. You
would be tranquil at the bottom of the water! But what about me? . . ."

In this instance Jacques is tranquil at the bottom of his precipice, but
Fernande is alive and not at all tranquil. Jacques never rises to t