Hermione’s choice in marriage seemed to be wholly left to herself.  Mr. Leare told me, when I had that formidable talk with him dreaded by all aspirants to the hand of a man’s daughter, that Hermione had too much good sense, self-respect and womanliness to give herself away to a man unworthy of her.  “That she can love you, sir,” he said, “is sufficient recommendation.”

That it might be sufficient in my case I hoped with all my soul, but felt, as Hermione had expressed it early in our acquaintance, that society in America must be founded upon very different opinions than our own in regard to the relations of men and women.

E.W.  LATIMER.

THE AUTHORS OF “FROUFROU.”

No doubt it will surprise some theatre-goers who are not special students of the stage to be told that the authors of Froufrou are the authors also of the Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein and of La Belle Helene, of Carmen and of Le Petit Duc.  There are a few, I know, who think that Froufrou was written by the fertile and ingenious M. Victorien Sardou, and who, without thinking, credit M. Jacques Offenbach with the composition of the words as well as the music of the Grande Duchesse; and as for Carmen, is it not an Italian opera, and is not the book, like the music, the work of some Italian?  As a matter of fact, all these plays, unlike as they are to each other, and not only these, but many more—­not a few of them fairly well known to the American play-goer—­are due to the collaboration of M. Henri Meilhac and M. Ludovic Halevy.

Born in 1832, M. Henri Meilhac, like M. Emile Zola, dealt in books before he began to make them.  He soon gave up trade for journalism, and contributed with pen and pencil to the comic Journal pour Rire.  He began as a dramatist in 1855 with a two-act play at the Palais Royal Theatre:  like the first pieces of Scribe and of M. Sardou, and of so many more who have afterward abundantly succeeded on the stage, this play of M. Meilhac’s was a failure; and so also was his next, likewise in two acts.  But in 1856 the Sarabande du Cardinal, a delightful little comedy in one act, met with favor at the Gymnase.  It was followed by two or three other comediettas equally clever.  In 1859, M. Meilhac made his first attempt at a comedy in five acts, but the Petit fils de Mascarille had not the good fortune of his ancestor.  In 1860, for the first time, he was assisted by M. Ludovic Halevy, and in the twenty years since then their names have been linked together on the title-pages of two score or more plays of all kinds—­drama, comedy, farce, opera, operetta and ballet.  M. Meilhac’s new partner was the nephew of the Halevy who is best known out of France as the composer of the Jewess, and he was the son of M. Leon Halevy, poet, philosopher and playwright.  Two years younger than M. Henri Meilhac,