Of the mystery which surrounds his death in the December of 1882 she refuses to talk. “We never speak of those things,” she said sadly, when one day at Gif I referred to them. Equally silent is Mme. Adam about that veiled figure dominating the background of Gambetta’s later years, that Mlle. L. L——, who never missed one of Gambetta’s speeches in the Assembly, whose letters Gambetta used to read to Mme. Adam in the early years of their friendship.[320] With her innate cheerfulness she now prefers to dwell on the early years of her friend’s career, when as an ardent young Bohemian meridional he was first making his appearance in her salon, or when at the height of his fame he kept his state at her evening parties, remaining in an ante-room apart and there receiving in solemn conclave those whom, as likely to help him in his political designs, his hosts thought it desirable he should meet. In those days he was still living with his old Aunt Tata in Paris, and in affectionate intimacy with his parents and sister in the south. His sister’s sons are to-day as dear to Mme. Adam as if they were her own. Of one of them, Léon, the younger, who is now a cavalry officer at the front, she relates with pride that he has sworn to be the first to ride into reconquered Strasbourg. FOOTNOTES: [288] See Marcel Sembat, _Faites un Roi ou faites le Paix_ (1915), _passim_. [289] _Souvenirs_, V. 2. [290] _Ibid._, IV. 316. [291] _Mr. Britling Sees it Through_, 378. [292] _Souvenirs_, VI. 330. [293] _Ibid._, 198. [294] _Souvenirs_, VI. 157. [295] _Ibid._, 182. [296] _Souvenirs_, VI. 290. [297] It had been sitting since February 1871. [298] _Souvenirs_, VI. 226. [299] _Ibid._, 388. [300] Henri Galli, _Gambetta et l’Alsace-Lorraine_, p. 315. [301] Prince von Hohenlohe, _Mémoires_, II. 405. [302] _Souvenirs_, VI. 16. [303] _Ibid._, I. 208. [304] Her references to England in her articles contributed to _La Nouvelle Revue_ are somewhat contradictory. When a commercial treaty between our two nations was on foot, she would argue that our interests are identical. Generally she maintained that we are doomed to be rivals. [305] _Souvenirs_, II. 22. [306] _Ibid._, VI. 405. [307] p. 9. [308] _Souvenirs_, VI. 272. [309] _Ibid._, 405. [310] _Souvenirs_, V. 297. [311] _Ibid._, VI. 84. [312] _Ibid._, VII. 73. [313] _Souvenirs_, VI. 472. [314] For those rumours with regard to Gambetta, see _ante_, 186. [315] _Souvenirs_, VI. 471. [316] _Ibid._, VII. 112. [317] See Henri Galli, _Gambetta et l’Alsace-Lorraine_, 314. [318] _Souvenirs_, VII. 121-7. [319] See Mme. Adam’s story of the “Affaire de la Rue Roquépine,” _Souvenirs_, VII. 55-60. [320] See _ante_, 186; also _Souvenirs_, VI. 80, and _Le cœur de Gambetta_, by Laur. CHAPTER XV DISILLUSIONMENT “_Petit à petit, la guerre, nos malheurs, la Commune, l’abandon de la revanche, m’auraient détachée du jacobinisme et de la grande Révolution._”—Mme. Adam.