And it was about this time that I began to gather the true source and import of his literary predisposition.  He was literally obsessed, as I now discovered, with Continental and more especially the French conception of art in writing.  He had studied the works as well as the temperaments and experiences (more especially the latter, I fear) of such writers as de Maupassant, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Balzac, de Musset, Sand, Daudet, Dumas junior, and Zola, as well as a number of the more recent writers:  Hervieu, Bourget, Louys and their contemporaries.  Most of all, though, he was impressed, and deeply, by the life and art of de Maupassant, his method of approach, his unbiased outlook on life, his freedom from moral and religious and even sentimental predisposition.  In the beginning of his literary career I really believe he slaved to imitate him exactly, although he could not very well escape the American temperament and rearing by which he was hopelessly conditioned.  A certain Western critic and editor, to whom he had first addressed his hopes and scribblings before coming to me, writing me after L——­’s death in reference to a period antedating that in which I had known him, observed, “He was crazy about the fin de siecle stuff that then held the boards and from which (I hope the recording angel will put it to my credit) I steered him clear.”  I think so; but he was still very much interested in it.  He admired Aubrey Beardsley, the poster artists of France, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Rops, the Yellow Book, even Oscar Wilde, although his was a far more substantial and plebeian and even radical point of view.

Unfortunately for L——­, I have always thought, there now thrust himself forward the publisher and owner of the magazine, who from previously having been content to see that the mercantile affairs of the magazine were in good order, had decided that since it was attracting attention he should be allowed to share in its literary and artistic prestige, should indeed be closely identified with it and recognized as its true source and inspiration—­a thing which in no fashion had been contemplated by me when I went there.  From having agreed very distinctly with me that no such interference would at any time be indulged in, he now came forward with a plan for an advisory council which was to consist of himself and the very members of the staff which I had created.

I could not object and it did not disturb me so much personally.  For some time I had been sensing that the thing was for me no end in itself, but an incident.  This same I felt to be true for L——­, who had been taking more and more interest in the magazine’s technical composition.  At the same time I saw no immediate way of arranging my affairs and departing, which left me, for a very little while, more or less of a spectator.  During this time I had the dissatisfaction of noting the growth of an influence with L——­ which could, as I saw, prove only harmful.  M——­