[8] The last named (Mr. George Moore?) gave, it seems, an account of this conversation in the "St. James's Gazette," May 13, 1884; and the article was translated and published in Paris. Not having seen the English text, the present writer has followed the French version. It appears that the conversation took place at the house of Edmond de Goncourt, on an occasion when the latter read to his friends his preface to "Chérie," in which he bade farewell to literature. [9] In writing "L'Assommoir" Zola did not merely consult the existing slang dictionaries. The scene of the story was laid at half an hour's walk from his own home. He prowled the whole neighbourhood for weeks, observing and listening; and before he set pen to paper he prepared a little slang lexicon for his own use, one which may some day be published. He kept this compilation at his elbow while he was writing, and every time he borrowed from it a word or expression he marked the latter with a blue pencil, in order to avoid too frequent a repetition of the same term. [10] A writer in the "Athenæum" [No. 3911, October 11, 1902], when reviewing Miss Betham-Edwards's "East of Paris," pointed out that in a previous work, "France of To-day," 1892, she had denounced "La Terre," and declared it to be "crushingly refuted"; whereas ten years later she admitted that it was "not without foundation on fact." [11] Funeral oration on Zola. XII THE MAN--HIS LIFE DRAMA--A NEW DEPARTURE. 1893-1897 Zola's personal appearance--A palmist's reading of his hand--Some of his petty manias and superstitions--His powers of observation--His memory--Characteristics of his intellect--His daily life--His orderliness--His "confession"--The drama of his life--A childless home--Birth of an illegitimate daughter and son--Some great men and the moral law--Some eminent women and the popular standard of morality--The alleged "new Zola"--Sermonising novels--"L'Attaque du Moulin" as an opera--The trilogy of "Lourdes," "Rome," and "Paris"--Faith, hope, and charity to be replaced by fruitfulness, work, truth, and justice--Attacks on "Lourdes"--Arrest of Dreyfus--Zola, his book "Rome," and Pope Leo XIII.--His stay in the Eternal City--He visits his Italian relatives--Difficulties of writing "Rome"--Its publication--Charges of plagiarism and Zola's answer--His volume "Nouvelle Campagne"--His opinion of a _clairvoyante_--His first defence of the Jews.