slightly indicated, but present. He is generally inclined to see the best side of everything, and view all things through couleur de rose spectacles. He is pious by instinct and religious by intelligence, more brave than courageous, and more resolute than brave."
The second is a portrait of Dumas in his thirties, by a confrère and a contemporary, M. Hippolyte Romand, who looks upon the author from a more human point of view:
"Passionate by temperament, subtle by instinct, and courageous by vanity, he has a good heart and bad judgment, and is a spendthrift by nature. He is a veritable 'Antony' for love, almost a 'Darlington' for ambition: he never will be a 'Sentinelli' [1] for vengeance. Superstitious [2] when he thinks, religious when he writes, sceptical when he speaks, light even in his most fiery passions, his blood is a lava, his thought a spark. His personality is as illogical as it is possible to conceive, and the most unmusical that we know; he is a liar in his capacity as poet; generous, because he
- ↑ The character in "Christine" who, impelled by private hate, kills Monaldeschi, by Queen Christine's order.
- ↑ Pifteau tells us that Dumas had a belief in the "evil eye," and a rooted distrust of monks as harbingers of evil. Vandam tells us that "although far from being superstitious," the romancer prophesied that the notorious Lola Montès would bring ill-luck to all who joined their destinies to hers, and the after career of that courtesan proved him to be right.
