Swept by all this nobility of her discerning spirit, and all the ravishing charm of her beauty, Tiburce seizes his brushes and does master work--and then begs his new-found love to name the day for the crying of their banns. * * * * * Perhaps it needs no word here to emphasize one phase of Gautier’s nature--he _knew_ himself to be a beauty-lover, and he knew all the limitations of character that this cult rendered inevitable. * * * * * A second force in Gautier’s life was his orientalism. In this he was not only conscious of the strain of eastern blood that pulsed through both body and temperament, but he was, by reason of long application, constant travel, and the varied opportunities of a critic’s life, a savant on matters oriental, particularly Pompeian and Egyptian. Here, again, “The Romance of a Mummy,” a long tale, “One of Cleopatra’s Nights,” a short tale, and “The Mummy’s Foot,” which follows in translation, display the savant in his work. The movement of life in ancient Egypt in the time of the Hebrew bondage, and all that highly colored, picturesque civilization, afford him the always coveted background which he valued as much for itself as for its use as a setting. In another of his shorter stories, “Arria Marcella,” the savant is also evident. The familiar but terrible theme of the vampire woman is set in an idealized reconstruction of Pompeian life; just as that one perfect short-story from the pen of Gautier, “The Dead Leman” (_La Morte Amoureuse_), marvellously made to live again the mediæval spirit in the poignantly pitiful mistress whose end is the heart-break of selfish passion; and “The Thousand-and-Second Night” evokes anew the indistinct, subtle, alluring odors of the Arabian Nights. The three best-known longer tales of Gautier--technically they are not precisely novels--are _Mademoiselle de Maupin_, a prose-song to beauty--immoral, daring, and beautiful; _Captain Fracasse_, whose smash-’em-up, picaroon hero leads us through abundant adventures; and _Spirite_, a notable contrast to the materialism displayed--almost flaunted--in his other work. _Spirite_ is a story of fantasy; but it is more: with a tender delicacy and spiritual subtlety which well may surprise his public, Gautier presents the contrasting love-lure of Lavinia d’Audefini, a disembodied woman, and the very real but--here is the remarkable part--less attractive charms of Mme. d’Ymbercourt, a red-ripe woman indeed. We are indebted to Gautier for this one story as a demonstration that, while his tales are mostly as unmoral as the pigments of his literary palette, he can at will delineate the ethereal, and in so doing disclose a fine understanding of spiritual values. THE MUMMY’S FOOT (_LE PIED DE MOMIE_) By Théophile Gautier _Done into English by the Editor_