OCTAVE FEUILLET'S NOVELS

To be serious seriously is the way of mediocrity.To be serious gaily is not such an easy matter.To look on at the pantomime of things, andto see, neatly separated, tragedy here, comedyopposite—to miss the perpetual dissolution andresolution of the one into and out of the other—isinevitable when eyes are purblind. Diis alitervisum. Olympus laughs because it perceives somany capital reasons for pulling a long face; andhalf the time pulls a long face simply to keepfrom laughing. I imagine it is in some measurethe Olympian manner of seeing which explainsthe gay seriousness of the work of Octave Feuillet.

Octave Feuillet possesses to an altogetherremarkable degree the art of being serious not onlygaily, but charmingly. This, to begin with, placeshim and his stories in a particular atmosphere; and,if we consider it, I think we shall recognise thatatmosphere as something very like the old familiaratmosphere of the fairy-tale. At any rate, thereis a delicate, a fanciful symbolism in Feuillet'swork, which breathes a fragrance unmistakablyreminiscent of the enchanted forest. For aninstance, one may recall the chapter in Un Mariagedans le Monde which relates the escapade of Lioneland his betrothed on the day before their wedding.A conventional mother, busy with preparations forthe ceremony, intrusts her daughter to thechaperonage of an old aunt, who is, we might suppose,exactly the person for the office. But old auntsare sometimes wonderfully made; sometimes theykeep the most unlooked-for surprises up thosecapacious old-fashioned sleeves of theirs. This onewas a fairy godmother in disguise, and, I suspect,a pupil of the grimly-benevolent Blackstick. Withgood-humoured cynicism, she remarks that thehappiest period of even the happiest married life is theday before it begins, and she advises her youngcharges to make the most of it—chases them,indeed, from her presence. "Be off with you, mychildren!

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