Page:George Sand by Bertha Thomas.djvu/191

Rh To her son, who was in Paris at the time of the disturbances in May 1849, she writes:

During the two years preceding the coup d'état of December 1851, life at Nohant had resumed its wonted cheerfulness of aspect. Madame Sand was used to surround herself with young people and artistic people; but now, amid their light-heartedness, she had for a period to battle with an extreme inward sadness, confirmed by the fresh evidence brought by these years of the demoralisation in all ranks of opinion. "Your head is not very lucid when your heart is so deeply wounded," she had remarked already after the disasters of 1848, "and how can one help suffering mortally from the spectacle of civil war and the slaughter among the people?"

To that was now added a loss of faith in the virtues of her own party, as well as of the masses. It is no wonder if she fell out of love for awhile with the ideals of romance, with her own art of fiction, and the types of heroism that were her favourite creations. But if