of newspapers than General French. He has never adopted the studied
reticence of Kitchener nor yet the chill aloofness of certain of his
colleagues. War correspondents are not anathema to him; neither does
he shudder at the sight of the reporter's pencil. Yet, somehow, few
anecdotes cluster round his name.

Perhaps that is because his modesty is not a pose, although it has
become almost a tradition. It is simply a natural trait in a modest
and rather retiring disposition. French simply will not be talked
about--and there is an end of the matter.

If one were asked to describe the man, one might best answer that he
is the Englishman to the _n_th. degree. It is usual to find that the
man of extraordinary merit is in some degree a contrast with and a
criticism of the mere average mortal of his set. The dour urbanity of
Kitchener, for instance, is Oriental rather than English, and
contrasts strangely with the choleric tradition of the army officer.
So the infinite alertness and constant good humour of Roberts has a
quality of Latin _esprit_ very foreign to the English temperament. But
there are no such peculiarities about French. He is the very essence
of healthy normality.

Yet, although of Celtic descent, he is essentially English. He has not
hacked his way to fame in the manner of the Scot, nor has he leapt
upon her pedestal with the boisterous humour of the Irishman. He has
got there in the dogged but sporting English way, taking Fortune's
gifts when they came, but never pushing or scrambling for them when
they were out of reach.

One catches the spirit of the man in the schoolboy. When he first went