White Stains

8 PREFACE roboration, and almost the only source at the disposal of the biographer is the letters of Mathilde Doriac to Mdme J. S., who has kindly placed her portfolio at my service. A letter dated Oct. 15th, 1866 indicates that our author was born on the 23rd of that month. The father and mother of George were, at least on the surface, of an extraordinary religious turn of mind. Mathilde’s version of the story, which has its source in our friend himself, agrees almost word for word with a letter of the Rev. Edw. Turle to Mrs. Cope, recommending the child to her care. The substance of the story is as follows. The parents of George carried their religious ideas to the point of never consummating their marriage ! This arrangement does not seem to have been greatly appreciated by the wife at least ; one fine morning she was found to be enceinte. The foolish father never thought of the hypothesis which commends itself most readily to a man of the world, not to say a man of science, and adopted that of a second Messiah ! He took the utmost pains to conceal the birth of the child, treated everybody who came to the house as an emis- sary of Herod, and finally made up his mind to flee into Egypt ! Like most religious maniacs, he never