May, 1900.
_The book that I publish under this title, "A Chambermaid's Diary,"
was really written by Mlle. Célestine R------, chambermaid. When I
was asked to revise the manuscript, to correct it, and to rewrite
some parts of it, I refused at first, thinking, not without reason,
that, just as it was, in all its disorder, this diary had a certain
originality, a special savor, and that I could only render it
commonplace by putting into it anything of myself. But Mlle. Célestine
R------ was very pretty. She insisted. I finally yielded, for, after
all, I am a man._
_I confess that I was wrong. In doing this work which she asked of
me,--that is, in adding here and there some accents to this book,--I
am very much afraid that I have impaired its somewhat corrosive grace,
diminished its sad power, and, above all, substituted simple literature
for the emotion and life which these pages contained._
_I say this to answer in advance the objections which certain grave and
learned, and how noble, critics will not fail to raise._
_O. M._