enius of falsehood with which their whole being
is instinct.

* * * * *

The above extracts are from our journal: JOURNAL DES
GONCOURTS--_Memoires de la Vie Litteraire_; they are the documentary
foundation upon which, two years later, my brother and I composed
GERMINIE LACERTEUX, whom we made a study of and taught when she was in
the service of our venerable cousin, Mademoiselle de C----t, of whom we
were writing a veracious biography, after the style of a biography of
modern history.

EDMOND DE GONCOURT.

_Auteuil, April, 1886._

I

"Saved! so you are really out of danger, mademoiselle!" exclaimed the
maid with a cry of joy, as she closed the door upon the doctor, and,
rushing to the bed on which her mistress lay, she began, in a frenzy of
happiness and with a shower of kisses to embrace, together with the bed
covers, the old woman's poor, emaciated body, which seemed, in the huge
bed, as small as a child's.

The old woman took her head, silently, in both hands, pressed it against
her heart, heaved a sigh, and muttered: "Ah, well! so I must live on!"

This took place in a small room, through the window of which could be
seen a small patch of sky cut by three black iron pipes, various
neighboring roofs, and in the distance, between two houses that almost
touched, the leafless branch of a tree, whose trunk was invisible.

On the mantelpiece, in a mahogany box, was a square clock with a large
dial, huge figures and bulky hands. Beside it, under glass covers, were
two candlesticks formed by three silver swans twisting their necks
around a golden quiver. Near the fireplace an easy chair _a la
Voltaire_, covered with one of the pieces of tapestry of checker-board
pattern, which little girls and old women make, extended its empty arms.
Two little Italian landscapes, a flower piece in water-colors after
Bertin, with a date in red ink at the bottom, and a few miniatures hung
on the walls.

Upon the mahogany commode of an Empire pattern, a statue of Time in
black bronze, running with his scythe in rest, served as a watch stand
for a small watch with a monogram in diamonds upon blue enamel,
surrounded with pearls. The floor was covered with a bright carpet with
black and green stripes. The curtains at the bed and the window were of
old-fashioned chintz with red figures upon a chocolate ground.

At the head of the bed, a