CROWNING THE EDIFICE.
(A Study Translated into English from Zolaesque.)
Emile was triumphant. The arm-chair of the Academy was still vacant. He did not yet fill it. But, for all that, he was triumphant, for he had performed a brave action. He had achieved a veritable success. It was more than thousands from the coffers of the publishers, more than pages of praises of the papers. It was a great event at length wonderfully accomplished.
Emile sat in his London lodgings satisfied with all his surroundings. Of course, he was interviewed. He had been followed from France to England, and had seen in an evening paper an account of the temporary indisposition of one very dear to him on board the boat. He was prepared for his visitor.
"I am very comfortable. I think England charming; love its fog, and am deeply impressed with the Lord Mayor. I soon had enough of the first meeting of the Congress of the Institute, but thought the ball at Guildhall excellent. I really have no more to say. Next please." But his Interviewer was not to be discarded hurriedly. He stood to his guns, or, rather, his reporter's book.
"Are you not proud of all your volumes? Do you not think that by writing them you have achieved the success of the century?"
"I am certainly proud of my work. But my work is not my greatest achievement. No, a thousand times no, it is not my greatest achievement."
"Well what is?" asked the Interviewer; and then he added, "Please look sharp about it, as I have to do the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Monte Carlo Wells, and Mr. Balfour, before I return to the office."
"Yes, I am prouder of this last feat," pursued the Master, ignoring the presence of the Reporter, "than the rest put together. It has taken me all my life to make up my mind to do it; but it is done at last."
"Of what are you speaking?"
"Yes, what are my novels compared to the heroism of those sixty-five minutes! That hour has been a bar to my compatriots. It has kept them in France. And now I am their superior. I have at length the right to boast a triumph!"
The Interviewer made an entry in his note-book, then he asked for further explanation.
"And so you are prouder of this event than all your hard-earned fame. And now tell me what event has so greatly moved you?"
"With pleasure. But listen. For twenty years I have laboured to write the history of France in romance. And when I say the history of France, I mean that part of the nation's story which has sprung from the Third Empire."
"Yes, yes," interrupted the Interviewer; "and you have done it well. But pardon me, I am pressed for time. His Grace of Canterbury awaits me at Lambeth. Out with it! What is your special cause for pride?"
"Yes, I have been maligned, misunderstood, insulted, hated. But men must now call me a man of great courage, a man of infinite determination. For I have done it. Yes, after a lifetime of careful consideration I have done it!"
"Done what?" asked the Interviewer, who was growing impatient.
Then came the reply, uttered in a tone of indescribable emotion:
"I have crossed the Channel!"