_Chrétienne_ is the sequel to _Païenne_. The two novels tell the story of a beautiful Frenchwoman, Melissandre. She is married to a heartless rake, whom she has never loved, a M. de Noves. She has a lover, a gifted painter, Tiburce. Both novels are in the form of letters. They contain few incidents. But they tell the story of a consuming passion, which in _Païenne_ burns with fierce ardour and in _Chrétienne_ cools down into serene affection. The death of the husband, M. de Noves, which occurs in a duel at the close of _Païenne_ does not, as one might expect, lead to the lovers’ immediate marriage. Before the consummation of their legal union intervenes the whole of _Chrétienne_. For religious misgivings, which have arisen in the heart of Melissandre, cause her to banish her lover for a while. He goes to Greece. She remains in France. In the interval, Melissandre and Tiburce, who had both been fervent pagans, fall under Catholic influences, which convince them that their Hellenic ideals are only to be cherished so far as they lead to Christ. In the words of Tiburce, they follow “the great pagan” St. Paul on the road to Damascus.[340] And not until they have been received back into the Church of their fathers do they become man and wife. In these two books Mme. Adam brilliantly displays one of her most eminent literary gifts, which she has shown in all her writings: her passion for the beauties of nature and her power of describing them. It was their love of nature that had first attracted her to the Greeks. The idea of race has ever played a dominant part in Mme. Adam’s mentality. “_Je suis Gauloise, je suis Grecque, Latine, mais rien d’autre_,” she writes.[341] In returning to Christianity she flattered herself that she was returning to the traditions of her race, to the Roman Church which she regards as the highest expression of Latin culture, and of that Mediterranean tradition, which embodies all that she loves and respects, and which is the direct antithesis to the northern tradition, to the _Kultur_ of Berlin.[342] Bismarck she hated, not only as the conqueror of France and the persecutor of Catholics, but as the sworn foe of Latin culture. Spuller had told her that the Chancellor had a horror of everything Latin, that in his _Kulturkampf_ he was warring not merely against the religious idea, but against Latin influence in letters, philosophy and art.[343] FOOTNOTES: [321] _Souvenirs_, VI. 30. [322] _Ibid._, VII. 356. [323] Arthur Meyer, editor of _Le Gaulois, Ce que mes yeux ont vu_, 158-9. [324] _Souvenirs_, III. 15. [325] _Ibid._, VI. 128. [326] _Ibid._, VII. 48. [327] _Ibid._, 124. [328] _Ibid._ [329] _Souvenirs_, III. 86. [330] _Ibid._, VII. 380. [331] _Ibid._, IV. 119. [332] _Souvenirs_, VII. 164. [333] Technically, Jeanne d’Arc is not a saint. At present she is only “blessed,” having not yet attained to the third and final stage of canonisation. [334] _Souvenirs_, III. 106. [335] _Ibid._, 36, 37.