e
nineteenth century. Agricol Perdiguier may have seen the _Confederation
du Travail_ dawning in the horizon.

In the _Compagnon du Tour de France_, Pierre Huguenin, a
carpenter, travels about among all these different societies of the
_Compagnonnage_, and lets us see something of their competition,
rivalries, battles, etc. He is then sent for to the Villepreux Chateau,
to do some work. The noble Yseult falls in love with this fine-talking
carpenter, and at once begs him to make her happy by marrying her.

In the _Meunier d'Angibault_ it is a working locksmith, Henri Lemor, who
falls in love with Marcelle de Blanchemont. Born to wealth, she regrets
that she is not the daughter or the mother of workingmen. Finally,
however, she loses her fortune, and rejoices in this event. The
personage who stands out in relief in this novel is the miller, Grand
Louis. He is always gay and contented, with a smile on his lips, singing
lively songs and giving advice to every one.

In the _Peche de M. Antoine_, the _role_ of Grand Louis falls to Jean
the carpenter. In this story all the people are communists, with the
exception of the owner of the factory, who, in consequence, is treated
with contempt. His son Emile marries the daughter of Monsieur Antoine.
Her name is Gilberte, and a silly old man, the Marquis de Boisguilbaut,
leaves her all his money, on condition that the young couple found a
colony of agriculturists in which there shall be absolute communism. All
these stories, full of eloquence and dissertations on the misfortune
of being rich and the corrupting influence of wealth, would be
insufferable, if it were not for the fact that the Angibault mill were
in the Black Valley, and the crumbling chateau, belonging to Monsieur
Antoine, on the banks of the Creuse.

They are very poor novels, and it would be a waste of time to attempt
to defend them. They are not to be despised, though, as regards their
influence on the rest of George Sand's work, and also as regards the
history of the French novel. They rendered great service to George
Sand, inasmuch as they helped her to come out of herself and to turn her
attention to the miseries of other people, instead of dwelling all the
time on her own. The miseries she now saw were more general ones, and
consequently more worthy of interest. In the history of the novel they
are of capital importance, as they are the first ones to bring into
notice, by making them play a part, people of w