On a cold, grey, foggy November morning Alphonse Daudet arrived in Paris, with only two francs in his pocket. His railway fare had been lent him by one of the masters at Alais, and he had had nothing to eat or drink on the journey, which had taken forty-eight hours, except a little brandy and water kindly offered by some sailors who travelled with him. He had not dared to spend the little he had left after buying his ticket, for he thought it better to go without food than reach Paris penniless. His brother met him and took him to his lodgings in the “Quartier Latin.” Ernest, who had come to Paris with introductions, had obtained a post on the staff of an Orleanist newspaper, _Le Spectateur_, at a salary of £2 a week. In his Trente ans de Paris and _Souvenirs d’un homme de lettres_, Le Petit Chose graphically tells us how, when his brother was at work, he wandered through the second-hand bookshops, where he was allowed to look through the new books on condition that he did not cut the leaves, and how one day, after fruitless interviews with publishers, when loitering along the banks of the Seine, he made the acquaintance of an editor, who became interested in him and agreed to publish his first little volume of charming poems, _Les Amoureuses_ (1858). Thus at the age of eighteen did Daudet make his debut in the literary world. The first rung was reached in the ladder of fame, and success was not long in coming. He became a regular contributor to the _Figaro_. One of his poems, _Les Frunes_, was recited at the Tuileries before the Empress Eugénie. She liked it so much that she was led to inquire who the author was. On being told he was a poor man starving in a garret, she at once requested the Duc de Moray, President of the Corps Législatif, to offer him a post as secretary in his department, a sinecure, with a handsome salary attached. This gave him plenty of time to devote to literature, but hard work soon told on so delicate a frame. In 1861 he broke down owing to overwork, and went to Algeria and Corsica to recruit, collecting materials for future novels. In 1866, seized with a keen desire to visit once more his native town, he went South, where he wrote part of his autobiography, _Le Petit Chose_. In the following year (1867) he married Mlle. Julia Allard, whom he met at his parents’ home. It was a case of love at first sight. The marriage was an ideally happy one, and Daudet owed much of his future success to his wife, who corrected his proofs, criticized his characters, and encouraged him in every way she could.