he gave it the spark (l'etincelle); and the story lived and moved.

It is true that he "took his own where he found it," like Molere and
that he took a good deal. In the gallery of an old country-house,
on a wet day, I came once on the "Memoires" of D'Artagnan, where
they had lain since the family bought them in Queen Anne's time.
There were our old friends the Musketeers, and there were many of
their adventures, told at great length and breadth. But how much
more vivacious they are in Dumas! M. About repeats a story of
Dumas and his ways of work. He met the great man at Marseilles,
where, indeed, Alexandre chanced to be "on with the new love" before
being completely "off with the old." Dumas picked up M. About,
literally lifted him in his embrace, and carried him off to see a
play which he had written in three days. The play was a success;
the supper was prolonged till three in the morning; M. About was
almost asleep as he walked home, but Dumas was as fresh as if he had
just got out of bed. "Go to sleep, old man," he said: "I, who am
only fifty-five, have three feuilletons to write, which must be
posted to-morrow. If I have time I shall knock up a little piece
for Montigny--the idea is running in my head." So next morning M.
About saw the three feuilletons made up for the post, and another
packet addressed to M. Montigny: it was the play L'Invitation e la
Valse, a chef-d'oeuvre! Well, the material had been prepared for
Dumas. M. About saw one of his novels at Marseilles in the
chrysalis. It was a stout copy-book full of paper, composed by a
practised hand, on the master's design. Dumas copied out each
little leaf on a big leaf of paper, en y semant l'esprit e pleines
mains. This was his method. As a rule, in collaboration, one man
does the work while the other looks on. Is it likely that Dumas
looked on? That was not the manner of Dumas. "Mirecourt and