Note 68 — ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY (continued 5)

The story is told on the authority of Madame Charpentier, wife of the publisher, but it is somewhat doubtful whether the lady in question was herself, though she and her husband knew M. Lockroy as well as Zola. If not, the intermediary may have been a lady related to a minister whose energy made him famous during the siege of Paris. There was such a lady who knew Zola well. English and American readers will doubtless regard the whole affair as being "very French."