[336] _Ibid._, 106. [337] _Ibid._, VII. 404-5. [338] _Les Contemporains_, 1ère série, 119-64. [339] See _ante_, 69. [340] _Chrétienne_, 224. [341] _Souvenirs_, III. 401. [342] Hanotaux, _Histoire de la France Contemporaine_, I. 504. [343] _Souvenirs_, VII. 395-6. CHAPTER XVI “LA NOUVELLE REVUE” 1879-1899 “La Nouvelle Revue _devait être le foyer, de l’idée, de la revanche et le lien de réunion de la France régenerée_.”—Léon Daudet. “_La Nouvelle Revue_ ... was to be the organ of the young Republic in periodical literature.”—Richard Whiteing. Intensity is a dominant note of Mme. Adam’s nature. It characterises alike her hatred and her loves, her preferences and her prejudices. While, as Gambetta remarked, she lets her rancour run dangerously near ferocity,[344] she treasures her friendships as the most precious gifts of the gods. Nothing pleases her better than to help her friends. “The surest way to my friendship,” she declares, “is to ask me to render some service.” Sitting next to Edmond de Goncourt at one of Alphonse Daudet’s dinner-parties, she said, “I have a hundred friends ... and that is about the number I need.... I am always grateful to people who make demands on me. It is my life.... My energy loves to be serviceable.” She has ever been ready to wear herself out in the cause of the unfortunate, _pour s’intéresser aux pauvres diables_, as her friend Léon Daudet expresses it. I find in one of her letters to me this sentence: “_Chacune de vos lettres m’attache maternellement à vous; c’est ainsi que j’aime le plus_.” In another letter she expresses this very characteristic sentiment: “_C’est tout de suite ou jamais avec moi. Vous avez senti qu’avec vous c’était tout de suite._” At a glance she has always decided whether she likes or dislikes a person. If the former, then she gives her confidence absolutely and completely. But woe to the unhappy wight whom she finds in any fundamental matter unworthy of that confidence. “I don’t envy any one who is Mme. Adam’s enemy,” said Changarnier. “But,” replied Jules de Lasteyrie, “I do envy any one who is her friend.”