Mérimée

Merimee says of George Sand that he has known her "maigre comme un clou et noire comme une taupe."

There are fine things in Balzac and passages in Merimee which strike one like a keen blast of sea air.

She tells of her intimacy with Merimee, an intimacy which was of short duration and very unsatisfactory.

It is as clear and precise as Merimee, and it has all the color and imagination that he lacks to make him a poet.