Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/27

 imaginative temperament, the levity of nature, the impulsive soul—a host of qualities which were strange to the comprehension of both friends and enemies in after-life; because side by side with them were all the native characteristics of the Frenchman, existent in full vigour.

All his life Dumas was taunted with his negro descent; the caricaturists and lampooners, with execrable taste, made the crisp hair and lean calves of the quadroon the subject of innumerable gibes. "Blackwood" tells us that a person more remarkable for inquisitiveness than for correct breeding once took the liberty to question the romancer rather closely concerning his genealogical tree.

"You are a quadroon, M. Dumas?" he began.

"I am, sir," replied the author, who had sense enough not to be ashamed of a descent he could not conceal.

"And your father?..."

"Was a mulatto."

"And you grandfather?"

"A negro," hastily answered Dumas, whose patience was waning fast—too fast for him to trouble about accuracy.

"And may I enquire what your great-grandfather was?"

"An ape, sir!" thundered the great man—"an