e is in love with this young man. George Sand's
play turns on the question of what is to be done when the day comes for
Victorine to marry. An excellent husband is found for her, a certain
Fulgence, one of Monsieur Vanderke's clerks. He belongs to her own
class, and this is considered one of the indispensable conditions for
happiness in marriage. He loves her, so that everything seems to favour
Victorine. We are delighted, and she, too, seems to be in good spirits,
but, all the time that she is receiving congratulations and presents, we
begin to see that she has some great trouble.

"Silk and pearls!" she exclaims; "oh, how heavy they are, but I am sure
that they are very fine. Lace, too, and silver; oh, such a quantity of
silver. How rich and fine and happy I shall be. And then Fulgence is so
fond of me." (She gets sadder and sadder.) "And father is so pleased.
How strange. I feel stifled." (She sits down in Antoine's chair.) "Is
this joy? . . . I feel . . . Ah, it hurts to be as happy as this. . . ."
She bursts into tears. This suppressed emotion to which she finally
gives vent, and this forced smile which ends in sobs are very effective
on the stage. The question is, how can Victorine's tears be dried? She
wants to marry young Vanderke, the son of her father's employer, instead
of the clerk. The only thing is, then, to arrange this marriage.

"Is it a crime, then, for my brother to love Victorine?" asks Sophie,
"and is it mad of me to think that you will give your consent?"

"My dear Sophie," replies Monsieur Vanderke, "there are no unequal
marriages in the sight of God. A servitor like Antoine is a friend, and
I have always brought you up to consider Victorine as your companion and
equal."

This is the way the father of the family speaks. Personally, I consider
him rather imprudent.

As this play is already a sequel to another one, I do not wish to
propose a sequel to _Le Mariage de Victorine_, but I cannot help
wondering what will happen when Vanderke's son finds himself the
son-in-law of an old servant-man, and also what will occur if he should
take his wife to call on some of his sister's friends. It seems to me
that he would then find out he had, made a mistake. Among the various
personages, only one appears to me quite worthy of interest, and that is
poor Fulgence, who was so straightforward and honest, and who is treated
so badly.

But how deep Victorine was! Even if we admit that she did not
deliberate