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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13517 ***
+
+IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
+
+_THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF REMINISCENCES_
+
+BY
+
+FELIX MOSCHELES
+
+WITH 63 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
+
+BY
+
+G. DU MAURIER
+
+_ILLUSTRATING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN THE FIFTIES_
+
+LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The few introductory words to this volume were written, and the last
+proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news overtook me in lovely
+Venice. My world, resplendent with sunshine, was suddenly lost in
+darkness. The most lovable of men, whose presence alone sufficed to
+make life worth living to all those near and dear to him, was gone
+from amongst us. His hand was no longer to hold those pens--the
+finely-pointed one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His
+well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth.
+
+Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages jars upon me.
+How differently would I attune the story of our student days, were I
+to write it to-day in loving memory of my friend!
+
+But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book, cordially endorsed
+by him, is printed and all but issued; he would not let me recall
+it, I know. He himself, in his kindly, simple way, had enjoyed my
+resuscitation of our early recollections, and had here and there lent
+a helpful hand even to the correcting of the proofs.
+
+To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as I would
+now venture to record them, I must wait till the heavier clouds have
+cleared away and left the picture, I would draw once more to stand out
+brightly in the background of Time.
+
+FELIX MOSCHELES.
+
+October, 1896.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a trifle more in
+my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time before he published his
+"Trilby"; and that remark started us talking of the good old times in
+Antwerp, and overhauling the numerous drawings and sketches in which
+he so vividly depicted the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed
+to me that some of those drawings should be published, if only to
+show how my now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In
+order that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the
+following pages.
+
+The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not the wild
+country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional savages, so often
+described, but a little cultivated corner of the land, as I found it
+in Antwerp, a mere background to the incidents I had to relate. Such
+as it is, it may perhaps serve here and there to point to the original
+soil from which were eventually to spring some of the figures so
+familiar to us to-day.
+
+To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories, and if
+I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that pleasures shared
+are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I always was, I am truly
+glad to have the opportunity of giving a hearty welcome to those
+who may care to join my friend and myself in our ramblings and our
+"tumblings."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I. 17
+
+PART II. 69
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  "FOR EVER AND A DAY" _Frontispiece_
+
+  THE ATELIER GLEYRE 18
+
+  MY BLOUSE 20
+    (_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)
+
+  PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES 27
+
+  FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING 30
+
+  MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE 32
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX 32
+
+  MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES #33
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX 33
+
+  F. S'IL ÉTAIT CHEVAL 33
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES 34
+
+  "CE SACRÉ VÉSICATOIRE" 35
+
+  ISABEL DU MAURIER 35
+
+  MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?--WHICH 40
+
+  "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" 42
+
+  DU MAURIER IMPROVISING 43
+
+  HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES
+      TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG 44
+
+  THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT 46
+
+  "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE" 49
+
+  "SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE" 50
+
+  A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR 57
+
+  THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY 60
+
+  FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY 64
+
+  "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY 65
+
+  RAG 72
+
+  BOBTAIL 72
+
+  "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I
+      WONDER." 76
+
+  COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS 80
+
+  CLARA MOSCHELES 83
+
+  "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN
+      BRUDER." 87
+
+  CHER LIX 88
+
+  "AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----" 89
+
+  DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN 90
+
+  "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES
+      JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI" 91
+
+  DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS 93
+
+  THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT 95
+
+  YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE
+      PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE 97
+
+  AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR 99
+
+  "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT
+      POOR OLD SPANIARD'S" 100
+
+  MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR
+      THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD" 101
+
+  MEETING IN DÃœSSELDORF 103
+
+  SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN 106
+
+  PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA 115
+
+  "ON THEIR HONEYMOON" 116
+
+  _Also Illustration on pages_ 37, 88, 98, 102, 108, 109, 110, 112,
+      114, 119, 123, 135, 144, 145.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+"TUMBLINGS"
+
+_WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS._
+
+
+"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the class-rooms
+of the famous Antwerp Academy.
+
+I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in the storm
+and stress period of one's artistic development.
+
+It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris; it was
+there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think I may say,
+very successfully, the essentially French art of chaffing, known by
+the name of "La blague parisienne," and I now was able to give my
+less lively Flemish friends and fellow-students the full benefit of my
+experience. Many pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when
+I heard one day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old
+atelier Gleyre, I was not a little impatient to make his acquaintance.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATELIER GLEYRE.]
+
+The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking it for
+granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in French; we were
+soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and answering questions
+about the comrades in Paris, and sorting the threads that associated
+us both with the same place. "Did you know 'un nommé Pointer'?" he
+asked, exquisitely Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally
+translated this into equally exquisite English, my version naturally
+being: "A man called Poynter."
+
+Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few words in
+his and my native tongue. "What the D. are you--English?" broke in du
+Maurier. "And what the D. are you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D.
+stood for Dickens or for the other one; probably it was the latter. At
+any rate, whether more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and
+there made friends on a sound international basis.
+
+It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier took me in
+at a glance--the eager, hungry glance of the caricaturist. He seemed
+struck with my appearance, as well he might be. I wore a workman's
+blouse that had gradually taken its colour from its surroundings. To
+protect myself from the indiscretions of my comrades I had painted
+various warnings on my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware,"
+"It is forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black
+hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily conceived
+band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's hand could devise,
+and I was doubtless colouring some meerschaum of eccentric design.
+My fellow-student, the now famous Matthew Maris, immortalised that
+blouse and that piece of crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here
+reproduced.
+
+[Illustration: MY BLOUSE.
+
+(_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)]
+
+It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to think that
+I should have been the tool selected by Providence to sharpen du
+Maurier's pencil; there must have been something in my "Verfluchte
+Physiognomie," as a very handsome young German, whom I used to chaff
+unmercifully, called it, to reveal to du Maurier hidden possibilities
+and to awaken in him those dormant capacities which had betrayed
+themselves in the eager glance above named.
+
+This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as regards that
+date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters before me, but they
+offer me no assistance; there is but one dated, and that one merely
+headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent." Well, in 1857, then, let us take it,
+the Antwerp Academy was under the direction of De Keyser, that most
+urbane of men and painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American
+and English lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the
+Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who rapidly
+made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys, Heyermans, and
+the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies after the Masters at
+the Antwerp Gallery are well known to every tourist. The teaching was
+of a sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies of
+the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the traditions
+of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might have studied form
+and learnt to fill it with colour, but here you would be taught
+to manipulate colour, and to limit it by form. A peculiar kind of
+artistic kicks and cuffs were administered to the student by Van
+Lerius as he went his rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you
+have painted in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion--"so
+delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up my palette
+knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah, you see, _savez vous_,
+you can't do it again; you got it by fluke, some stray tints off your
+palette, _savez vous_," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept
+over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints to have
+covered a dozen foreheads.
+
+The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was amusing
+to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and at the shortest
+notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble toes would screw and
+unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or handle the brush as steadily
+as the best and deftest of fingers could have done. Very much unlike
+any of us, he was most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his
+paint box, as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys,
+Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose thread of
+life was soon to be cut short, were painting splendid studies, some
+of which I was fortunate enough to rescue from destruction and have
+happily preserved.
+
+Quite worthy to be placed next to these are Van-der-something's
+studies. That (or something like that) was the name of a wiry, active
+little man who in those days painted in a garret; there everything
+was disarranged chaotically, mostly on the floor, for there was no
+furniture that I can recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine
+old looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked
+contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not badly
+appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an exuberance of charms
+and graces characteristic of a Rubens model.
+
+A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young German,
+brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He had always held
+most rigid principles on questions of morality, but unfortunately
+they failed one day in their application, owing to the less settled
+views entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects. She
+certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but on the other
+she so audaciously appropriated those of his goods and chattels that
+could be turned into money, that the police had to intervene, and she
+eventually found herself before a judge and jury. There, however, she
+managed so well to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to
+this day, I believe was quite innocent, that--"cherchez la femme"--she
+got off, and he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
+
+Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for forging
+their signatures, and he had been found guilty and condemned to severe
+punishment, it would have served him right. He was a perfect gem of
+a forger. He picked up a stock of those dirty old pictures painted on
+worm-eaten panels that used to abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp.
+On these he would paint what might be called replicas with variations,
+cribbing left and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered
+all about the floor. He would scrape and scumble, brighten and deaden
+with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and manipulate till his
+picture, after a given time spent in a damp cellar, would emerge as a
+genuine old master. I once asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular
+customer of his, at what price he sold one of those productions. "I
+really can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I buy
+for exportation to England and America." If any of my friends here
+or over there possess some work of Van-der-something's, I sincerely
+congratulate them, for the little man was a genius in his way.
+
+Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor fellow, he spent
+but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What became of his Circe
+I never sought to know. It was a clear case of "Ne cherchez pas la
+femme!"
+
+The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean Heyermans
+(detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved himself, for he at
+once took me in hand, helped me to find home and hearth, and generally
+gave me the correct tip, so valuable to the stranger. He lost no time
+in teaching me some of those full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from
+the first enabled me to emphasise my meaning when I wished to express
+it in unmistakable language.
+
+He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English, French, and
+German fluently, in addition to his native language, Dutch; so he soon
+chummed with du Maurier and me in several languages, and became one of
+our set. He was always ready to follow us in our digressions from the
+conventional course, and we felt that many of our best international
+jokes would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and
+appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us, inviting us to
+his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply knives and forks, and to
+empty glasses of various dimensions. That gentleman's corpulence had
+reached a degree which clearly showed that he must have "lost sight
+of his knees" some years back, but he was none the less strong and
+active. There were two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other
+sympathetically musical.
+
+How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know, but he
+figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings.
+
+"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come on
+Sunday, may the vengeance of the gods overtake him! Tell him so. I'll
+meet him at the train." And then he sketches the meeting and greeting
+of the two, and the railway guard starting his train with the
+old-fashioned horn-signal on the G.E.C. then in use.
+
+My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular exhibitor in
+Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a remarkable taste and
+talent for teaching.
+
+[Illustration: PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN
+MALINES.]
+
+"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert Browning
+one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking about his son's
+talents and prospects. (This was a few years after my final return to
+England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I said, "to Heyermans; he is the best
+man I know of to start him."
+
+Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a picture
+after little more than a twelve-month that at once found an eager
+purchaser. The poet took great pride in his son's success, and lost no
+opportunity of speaking in the most grateful and appreciative terms
+of the teacher. Millais and Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans'
+reputation was established. A few years ago he migrated to London,
+where he continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the
+Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a rising
+generation.
+
+Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was Alma
+Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time, but had
+previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in the room
+adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively interested in the
+study of costume and history. The incident that led to his leaving
+the academy rather abruptly is characteristic. An uncle of his having
+given him a commission for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for
+authorisation to make the necessary break in his studies. The Director
+accorded him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling
+the circumstance, "I couldn't paint a picture in three weeks then, and
+I cannot now."
+
+I little thought that from his studies of costume and history, the
+comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and uninterrupted
+series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past and presenting it with
+the erudition of the Student and the genius of the Artist. Nor did
+anything foreshadow that my genial Dutch friend, to whom the English
+language was a dead letter, was destined in a not too distant Future
+to become a shining light of England's Royal Academy.
+
+Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and made a
+vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly recollect
+a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and a boy--a
+pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's album--that showed
+talent enough and to spare, but his artistic aspirations were soon to
+meet with a serious check. His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and
+before long put a stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was
+not to become a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know,
+he was to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest
+of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of ink,
+when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or graceful
+shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns to prompt and
+guide that pen.
+
+[Illustration: _From du Maurier's painting._]
+
+
+In those days we called all that caricaturing, and caricature he
+certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the first he imagined he
+saw a marked contrast between us. His nose was supposed to be turned
+up, and mine down, whereas really neither his nor mine much deviated
+from the ordinary run of noses; my lower lip certainly does project,
+but his does not particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary
+contrast inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance,
+and started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all
+conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles and
+I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had we been
+artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the fair sex,
+or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility, if we were
+horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the essence of our
+characteristics, whilst appearing only to delineate our human and
+equine possibilities. Poor F., one of our German friends, fares badly,
+a donkey's head portraying him "s'il était cheval."
+
+[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE.]
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX.]
+
+In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du Maurier left
+Antwerp for Malines, to place himself under the care of an eminent
+oculist who resided within easy reach of that city. That blessed
+blister--"ce sacré vésicatoire," as he calls it, is one of the
+doctor's remedies.
+
+[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES.]
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX.]
+
+[Illustration: F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL.]
+
+The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister of Mercy.
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES.]
+
+In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is now, but
+one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an hour, a circumstance
+which I frequently turned to account. Du Maurier's mother had come to
+live with him, his sister joining them for a short time, and the home
+in quiet old Malines soon became a sort of haven of rest. I spent many
+a happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to say that
+the piano, requisitioned by me for some special purposes of musical
+caricature, detracted somewhat from the restfulness of the haven.
+However that may have been, such intrusion was never resented; my
+Swedish prima donna, or my qualifications as a basso profondo, or a
+brass-bandsman, were always treated with the greatest indulgence by
+the ladies, and my high soprano flourished and positively reached
+unknown altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause.
+(For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")
+
+[Illustration: "CE SACRÉ VESICATOIRE."]
+
+[Illustration: ISABEL DU MAURIER.]
+
+Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the English song,
+or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with his sympathetic
+tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he seemed to be able
+to express more than many who had had the advantage of a musical
+training. A few old letters of his remind me that we were audacious
+enough to write verses and music, he doing the former, I the latter.
+
+"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes. "Take
+strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,' and compose
+some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with which Rag's ideal
+flame has inspired Rag--_surtout_, let it be as good as possible, with
+accompaniment _à l'avenant_. An alteration in the music of each stanza
+would render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
+compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I must
+tell later on.) Then follow the words:--
+
+CHANSON.
+
+_D'apres un barde Britannique_.[1]
+
+  Les sources vont à la rivière
+    Et la rivière à l'océan;
+  Les monts embrassent la lumière,
+    Le vent du ciel se mêle au vent;
+  Contre le flot, le flot se presse;
+    Rien ne vit seul--tout semble, ici,
+  Se fondre en la commune ivresse....
+    Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi?
+  Vois le soleil étreint la terre,
+    Qui rougit d'aise à son coucher--
+  La lune étreint les flots, qu'éclaire
+    Son rayon doux comme un baiser;
+  Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses
+    Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas
+  Que valent toutes ces caresses
+    Si tu ne me caresses pas?[2]
+
+[Footnote 1: See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."]
+
+[Footnote 2: Pour bien apprécier la valeur artistique de cette
+romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les yeux fixes
+sur le profit de Bobtail.]
+
+Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le compositeur de
+face" head the page.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and writes:
+
+"DEAR BOBTAIL,--I send you the Serenade composed 'tant bien que mal'
+last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between the tea
+and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as dramatic as you
+wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and as Mahomet can't write
+words to the mountain's music, the mountain must try and adapt its
+music to the verses of Mahomet.
+
+SÉRÉNADE APRÈS LA SIESTE.
+
+  "Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta paupière,
+    Chasse les rêves d'or de ton léger sommeil--
+  Ils sont là, nos amis; cêde a notre prière
+   Le trône préparé n'attend que ton réveil;
+  Le soleil a cessé de régner sur la terre,
+    Viens régner sur la fête et sois notre soleil.
+  Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux
+  Au jardin des amours, viens ô viens avec nous.
+
+  Au jardin des amours ta place est réservée,
+    Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en fleurs.
+    Viens réveiller en nous de nouvelles ardeurs--
+  Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosée--
+  Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit à la vallée,
+    Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire à nos coeurs!
+  Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
+  Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous.
+
+  Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre,
+    Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux regards pour moi!
+    Déjà j'entends les jeux de la foule en émoi
+  Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux délire!
+  Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra dire:
+    'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a chanté sans toi!'
+  Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
+  Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens ô viens avec nous!
+
+"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance, the first
+tenor says he hears the folks doing the light fantastic toe. One might
+suppose they danced in sabots--mere poetic license, and besides, a
+first tenor ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire
+yourself."
+
+What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have been, I do
+not remember, but I find this is what he writes on the subject--
+
+"CARISSIMO,--In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive powers to alter the
+last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce baiser-la.' The lines I have
+underlined mean that I don't quite approve the part of the music
+that comes just there, as in the musical phrase you have set to it I
+fancy there is a want of tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the
+more I hums it the more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your
+accompaniment."
+
+[Illustration: Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which]
+
+No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather indefinite
+quantities, subject to the mood of the moment. "Moscheles or
+Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts me at the piano,
+perhaps evolving some such accompaniment from the depths of "untrained
+inner consciousness." "Eureka" he might have put under that other
+sketch, where his own hands have at last found some long-sought
+harmony or chord on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat
+later period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am at
+the piano, my eyes raised to the "She" in papillottes, who floats as a
+vision in the clouds, issuing from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my
+feet is stretched the meditative form of my friend, and under them is
+crushed some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven.
+
+[Illustration: "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE."]
+
+[Illustration: DU MAURIER IMPROVISING.]
+
+And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition that most
+people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes" that can inspire,
+I may permit myself to say something about the attractive young lady
+who was able to lead us by easy stages from the vague "inspiration
+papillotique" to an admiration which might be said to culminate in
+flirtation. I don't remember either of us ever trying to cut the other
+out, as the accompanying sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail
+fight a duel for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols.
+Shows the way in which Rag tries to _désillusioñer_ Carry on Bobtail,
+and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto on Rag Carry being on this
+side of the rivals is not represented."
+
+[Illustration: HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.]
+
+The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the enjoyment
+of her good graces, he having the pull of me the greater part of
+the week, and only suspending operations in my favour when I came to
+Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit. These occasions were productive
+of a great number of drawings and sketches, illustrating our little
+adventures, and all plainly showing that the incidents recorded
+occurred to us at that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions
+and buoyant spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of
+the rose colour than many a rose of a later day.
+
+Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at best up
+to the date of last century, beating the record for dry-as-dustiness
+and growing dear little blades of grass between its cobble stones. It
+boasts of a great many churches and of a very great many more priests.
+(_Vide_: The ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.)
+In addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of
+paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and elsewhere,
+there were pretty girls about, and I need not say that, as both of
+us were studying art and devoting our best energies to the cult of
+the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take special notice of
+these pretty girls wherever we came across them. It is probably the
+conscientious performance of his duty in that direction which enabled
+du Maurier to evolve those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of
+female beauty we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been
+becoming in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to show
+less ardour in the pursuit of my studies.
+
+[Illustration: THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+HAT.]
+
+Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black and white
+sketches of Miss Carry, it was reserved for me to paint her portrait
+in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not Carry; that appellation we had
+most unceremoniously and unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else
+about her we invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of
+poetry. And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well worthy
+of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being charmed, of giving
+and taking, of free and easiness, coupled with ladylike reserve. She
+seemed to be born with the intuitive knowledge that there was only one
+life worth living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time
+well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In fact, to
+give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul was steeped in the
+very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to Carry's soul, it may not be
+inappropriate to say something also about her looks; but to describe
+good looks is, as we all know, deliberately to court failure; far
+better request every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he
+will be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man will
+be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop of brown curly
+hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a figure of peculiar elasticity.
+
+Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who had held
+a good position at one of the principal churches of Malines. When he
+died he left but a small inheritance to his widow; with what she could
+realise, she purchased the goodwill of a small tobacconist's store
+and set up in business. Neither the mother nor the daughter had much
+previous knowledge of the concern they had started, and they were
+consequently not very discriminating in the selection of their brands;
+but what was lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by
+Mrs. L.'s obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had
+been steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them
+about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a time
+the little business was as flourishing as anything could well be in
+Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically conservative, and
+hereditarily stationary a city could hardly be expected to encourage
+a new venture of the kind. Still even there there were some young men
+about town, a sort of "jeunesse doré", not of 18-carat gold perhaps,
+but a "jeunesse" quite equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around
+the fair tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier
+and I supplied the rest, and watched over her with chivalrous, if not
+quite disinterested devotion. We differed in every respect from the
+type of the young man of the period above mentioned; so naturally we
+were bright stars in Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior
+beings, and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause;
+du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I could
+mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully! We neither of
+us encourage hero-worship now, but then we were "bons princes," and
+graciously accepted Carry's homage as due to our superior merits.
+
+[Illustration: "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+TOBACCONISTE!"]
+
+There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous devotion of
+ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds, richly attired, as
+true knights and good should be when they go to pay homage to beauty.
+
+"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair tobacconiste!"
+
+[Illustration: "SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"]
+
+"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing fair."
+
+The second drawing shows our "Salut à la Gente et accorte pucelle!"
+and the winning smile with which Carry would receive us.
+
+Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism, formed
+so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation between du Maurier
+and myself, that it takes a very prominent place in my recollections.
+
+In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most interesting
+séances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded to investigate the
+mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I have not touched the fluid
+for some thirty years; I swore off because it was taking too much
+out of me; but I look back with pleasure on my earlier experiments,
+successes I may say, for I was fortunate enough to come across several
+exceptional subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of
+these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling questions
+concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence. Virginie was
+a "femme de ménage" of the true Parisian type, a devoted elderly
+creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman and a housekeeper. I was
+not yet eighteen when I first went to Paris, to study under my cousin,
+the eminent painter, Henri Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie
+installed as the presiding genius of the establishment, using in
+turn broom or tub, needle, grill or frying-pan as the occasion might
+require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by making a
+truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My début in Paris was that
+of the somewhat bewildered foreigner, speaking but very indifferent
+French, and she had from the first done what she could to make me feel
+at home in the strange city, treating me with truly motherly care
+and devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown by a
+passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in Leipsic, where I had
+gone on a visit to my parents. After expressing her anxiety and her
+regret at not being there to nurse me, she emphatically says:--"Je
+rends Madame, votre mère, responsable de votre santé" (I make Madame,
+your mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little to
+lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence to one of
+unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few passes shaping her
+course, I willed her across the boundary line that separates us from
+the unknown, a line which, thanks to science, is daily being extended.
+Madame veuve Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the
+phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were such as to
+surprise and convert many a scoffer.
+
+At the séances, to which I invited my friends and a few scientific
+outsiders, I always courted the fullest investigation, taking it as
+the first duty of the mesmerist to show cause why he should not be
+put down as a charlatan. So we had tests and counter-tests, evidence
+and counter-evidence; there were doctors to feel the pulse and to
+scrutinise the rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific
+ifs and buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
+progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that wheel
+in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the good faith of
+subject and mesmerist could be conclusively proved.
+
+One of these séances led to a rather amusing incident. One night I
+was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my bell, and when,
+after some parleying, I opened the door, I found myself confronted
+by two individuals. One I recognised as an "inquirer" who had been
+brought to my rooms some time previously; the other was a lad I
+had not seen before. The inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully
+watched my _modus operandi_ on the occasion of his visit, had next
+tried experiments of his own. In this instance he had succeeded in
+mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him to his
+normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap fastened round
+his waist, he led him through the streets of Paris to my rooms.
+There we both tried our powers upon him, the result being very
+unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling himself freed from one operator and
+not subjected by the other, refused allegiance to either, and, being
+of a pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
+out at both of us. It was not without considerable difficulty that I
+re-mesmerised him completely, and then, having previously prepared his
+mind to account naturally for his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in
+awakening him, and all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful,
+the youth went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
+and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own account.
+
+I would say more of my séances and all the recollections they evoke,
+were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and to Malines. Once on
+the experiences of those days, I have much to relate--pros and cons,
+if you please, for that subtle magnetic fluid, which, without physical
+contact, one human being can transmit to another, is a ticklish one
+to handle. I cannot pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to
+the Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allongé, the well-known
+French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at the Ecole des Beaux
+Arts. A chance contact of our knees as we sat closely packed with some
+sixty other students put me on the track of a new subject, perhaps the
+most interesting one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But
+of him another time.
+
+Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the reader--that
+is, if natural slumber has not ere this put him beyond my
+control--across the frontier, into the back parlour of Mrs. L.'s
+tobacco store. There I am operating on a boy--such a stupid little
+Flemish boy that no amount of fluid could ever make him clever. How I
+came to treat him to passes I don't remember; probably I used him as
+an object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave him
+a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and burnt
+his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be eaten presently,
+thereby making him howl and grin alternately.
+
+In the middle of our séance Carry is called away by a customer, one
+of the swells of Malines much addicted to a poetical expression of his
+admiration for the fair sex in general and for Carry in particular.
+Greatly to our edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by
+leading him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a
+fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the accompanying
+sketch.
+
+But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even scientific
+experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days. When one stands
+on the threshold of a world of mysteries one cannot but long to bridge
+over the chasm that separates one from the gods, the fairies, or
+the fiends. To be sure, we should have been glad if we could have
+got "light, more light" thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we
+tried to find our way as best we could in the mist. We loved that
+never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear Bohemian
+sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made frequent inroads into
+the boundless land where unknown forces pick up our poor dear little
+conception of the Impossible, and use it as the starting-point of
+never-to-be-exhausted possibilities.
+
+[Illustration: A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.]
+
+Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our
+outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one or
+the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du Maurier
+was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to develop into
+Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in more than one of
+his letters and sketches the future delineator of those characters
+embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on one occasion he depicts
+himself, with fixed gaze and hair erect, sitting bolt upright on my
+hospitable sofa, thrilled and overawed by the midnight presence of the
+uncanny, which I had evoked for his benefit.
+
+"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow to Antwerp
+and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and comfortable--But why,
+when the bleak November wind sobs against the lattice and disturbs the
+dead ashes in the grate, when everything is damned queer and dark,
+and that sort of thing, you know--why should you make nervous fellows'
+flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming to see
+live fellows before dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad!
+it's horrid!"
+
+[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.]
+
+My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive gathering. We
+always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded better, but in reality
+there was only one room with two small alcoves. Studies and sketches
+covered the walls or littered the floor, and the genial figure of a
+skeleton, in very perfect condition, stood in the corner by the piano.
+At first it came with a view to instructing me in the Science of
+Anatomy, but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony
+professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus natural
+that on those occasions when guests had been convened to my rooms,
+he would take a leading part, generally appearing gracefully draped
+and appropriately illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background
+to the gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation,
+and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The sounds
+thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow limits of home, but
+spread far beyond it, a fact which the neighbours, I am sure, would
+have been at any time ready most emphatically to attest.
+
+In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily answerable for the
+magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound to add that my example
+was followed and even improved upon by the more lung-gifted of
+my companions. Amongst the milder forms of entertainment was my
+impersonation of Rachel. That grand actress I had often seen in Paris,
+and had, more than once, shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the
+Tyrant, pouring forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the
+classical language of Racine and Corneille. With those accents still
+ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and there, when surrounded by
+sympathetic friends, the spirit would sometimes move me, and I would
+feel--excuse the conceit of youth--as if I too could have been a
+great female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In
+such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and use the
+blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the classical folds of the
+bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant, hissing fearful hexameters of scorn
+and vituperation into his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so
+magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house which was
+not of the most solid construction.
+
+Another time the cushion yonder would be my child--the orthodox
+long-lost one--"It is!--It is not!--It is!--Let me clasp it to my
+other cushion!" "Toi mon fils chéri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes
+loisirs!"
+
+[Illustration: FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.]
+
+The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued from
+oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively doings
+on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's mamma," he
+says, "had worked a very pretty cap for Felix, and Felix had it on the
+morning after his birthday, and Felix found that though the cap was
+very pretty, it made him look very seedy."
+
+[Illustration: "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.]
+
+In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the friends
+assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had come together
+in the evening, much in the same spirit that had led them under my
+windows in the morning, with a brass band and an enormous bouquet of
+cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers. There, on the left, is Van Lerius
+with his hands in his pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans,
+Bource, and all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud
+bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good fellows!
+It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and contemplate du
+Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded capacity of enjoyment. I can
+see him taking points that fell flat with the other fellows. Quite
+a pleasure, too, to think of Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald
+head, of the tall and the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face.
+
+Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed, and
+the whirligig of time has been revolving with unfailing regularity,
+dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated, some to stand, some
+to fall. What has become of the threads of friendship, picked up at
+the studio or the café, perhaps whilst puzzling over the chess-board,
+or when harmonising in four-part song? Golden threads; some destined
+to be spun out and to become solidly intertwined; others to be
+hopelessly entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable
+Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon companions
+of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and everywhere--perhaps nowhere!
+Some I see trotting briskly along the high-road of life, others
+dragging wearily through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting
+under a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of
+dates, fixed just above their heads.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+I well remember a certain "barrière" that protected the level crossing
+just outside the Malines Station. It was but an ordinary piece of
+hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier and I, can never forget it;
+for, as we stood by its side we vowed that come what might, we would
+never travel along that line and past the old gate without recalling
+that summer evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days.
+
+It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our
+never-to-be-forgotten aliases--Rag and Bobtail. We had chanced upon a
+chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that old barrière, and some
+fortuitous circumstance having revealed the fact that his initials
+were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him Tag. Out of that very naturally
+grew the further development: Rag, Tag, and Bobtail.
+
+T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably taller
+than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to secure him
+the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at the shrine
+of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the man of
+six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman of commanding
+presence, his appreciation of size culminating in the love of "Chang,"
+that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt to admire, as we followed
+his career through the volumes of the immortal Weekly, presided over
+by Toby and his master.
+
+I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he took it
+much or often, but he gave one the impression that whatever others
+might do when amongst the benighted foreigner, he, for one, would not
+let a good old English custom drop into disuse. Looking at Tag one
+intuitively felt that his father before him had taken his moderate
+glass of W. and W., and that, if he married and had sons, they would
+do likewise. I do not think that he was particularly fond of art
+or artists, unless inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was
+engaged, or, at least, he was generally just about to be engaged, in
+some business, and whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence
+operations, he would settle down to an expectant present. The golden
+opportunity he was looking for was plainly visible on his horizon, but
+it had a way of remaining stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's
+nature to move unless under great pressure, the two never met.
+
+In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a good deal
+with us when we were out and about, bent on storming the world, or
+climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the looking on, the parts
+thus being distributed to our mutual satisfaction. He was always
+pleasantly acquiescent, and had the rare gift of making himself
+useless agreeably; a common bond of interest we had in the Colorado
+claro and oscuro, whether the fair or dark, applied to the friendly
+weed or the still more friendly fair sex.
+
+He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote to us from
+Paris, when he says:--
+
+    "Since my arrival here my notes of what I have to do represent
+    what I have not done, and if it be true that the infernal
+    regions are paved with good intentions, I shall be received
+    on my arrival by a deputation of souls to thank me for my
+    contribution to the pavement."
+
+[Illustration: RAG.]
+
+[Illustration: BOBTAIL.]
+
+There are sketches in which Tag's eloquence is confined to one
+exclamation, "Matilda!" But whether that name was coupled with present
+felicity or future hopes I do not recollect. But du Maurier's lines
+describe him and our chumship much better than any words of mine could
+do. He says:--
+
+"To BOBTAIL.
+
+  Oh, fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint
+  All lazy beggars like me--"
+
+  "In the sunshine of April, the April of life,
+    You and I and our Tag make three;
+  And few will deny that for such close chums
+    A queer set of fellows are we.
+
+  For I walk slowly, and you walk fast,
+    And Tag lies down (not to fall);
+  _You_ think of the Present, _I_ think of the Past,
+    And Tag thinks of nothing at all.
+
+  Yet who shall be lucky, and who shall be rich?
+    Whether both, neither, one, or all three;
+  Is a mystery which, Dame Fortune, the witch,
+    Tells neither Tag, Bobtail, or me!
+
+(RAG)."
+
+The portraits of Rag and Bobtail head the page. A space was left for
+Tag's, but never filled.
+
+_Apropos_ of plans and prospects on Tag's distant horizon, I find a
+passage in one of his letters, dated November, 1857, which is well
+worth recording. I quote it to give myself and my fellow Europeans an
+opportunity of rejoicing that Tag's scheme belonged to those that were
+not to be realised. It runs thus:--
+
+    "As du Maurier's eye, though better, will, most probably,
+    not allow him to resume his profession as a painter, we have
+    determined to try our fortune together in Australia, and
+    mean to start from here early in February. He hopes to obtain
+    employment by drawing sketches, caricatures, &c., for the
+    Melbourne _Punch_, and other illustrated papers. You know how
+    eminently suited he is for that kind of work, and we hear that
+    an artist of talent of that description is much wanted out
+    there, and would be sure to do exceedingly well. I, of course,
+    do not intend to start in that line, but hope to be able to
+    support myself for the first few years, after which I shall
+    establish myself in business on my own account, and I trust,
+    with luck, I may return home in the course of from ten to
+    fifteen years, if not with immense riches, at all events with
+    enough to enable me to pass the remainder of my 'old age' in
+    peace and comfort."
+
+[Illustration: "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+HANG MYSELF, I WONDER."]
+
+Did Tag ever go, I wonder? Did he come back, and has he perhaps
+been enjoying his "old age" somewhere over here for the last thirty
+years?--I wish you would say what _has_ become of you, my dear Tag.
+I'm sure we should be chums again, if you're anything like the dear
+old stick-in-the-mud of former days! Don't you recollect that sketch
+of Rag's? I had nearly forgotten to mention it, the one with the three
+ropes of life. I am climbing ahead with fiendish energy. Rag follows,
+steadily ascending, weighted as he is with a treasure, a box marked
+"Mrs. Rag, with care," and your noble form is squatting on the floor,
+a glass of the best blend at your feet, and a cigar you are enjoying
+from which rises the legend that makes you say, "What the deuce am I
+to do with this confounded rope? Hang myself, I wonder?" Nonsense, to
+be sure; but do come and tell me what you _have_ done with the rope,
+or say where I can find you still squatting.
+
+That music of a certain spontaneous kind, the music within us which we
+were ever longing to bring to the surface, was a bond of union between
+du Maurier and myself, I have already mentioned; but that bond was to
+be greatly strengthened by the music that great musicians on more than
+one occasion lavished on us. First came Louis Brassin, the pianist. He
+had studied under Moscheles at the Conservatorio of Leipsic, the city
+of Bach and Mendelssohn fame; and there, from the days of his boyhood,
+he had belonged to the little circle of intimates who frequently
+gathered around the master at his house.
+
+When, a few years later, he came to Belgium on a concert tour, he and
+I found no difficulty in taking up the old friendship contracted in my
+father's house, just where we had left it. The boy had become the man,
+the student had developed into the artist and thorough musician. He
+was the boonest of boon companions, and his jokes were so broad that
+they often reminded one, in their crudeness and their rudeness, of
+certain passages in Mozart's early letters. To say that he spoke
+French with a German accent à la Svengali would be putting it very
+mildly; Teutonic gutturals would most unceremoniously invade the
+sister language; d's and t's, b's and p's would ever change places, as
+they are made to do in some parts of the Fatherland. With all that,
+he rejoiced in a delightful fluency of speech, conveying quaint and
+original thought. There was something decidedly interesting about
+Brassin's looks, but his figure gave one the impression of having been
+very carelessly put together; when he walked his head went back on his
+shoulders, and his hat went back on his head; his long arms dangled,
+pendulum-like, by his sides, while his lanky legs, dragging along
+anyhow, were ever lagging behind one another. But when he opened the
+piano and put hands and feet to keys and pedal, he was not the same
+individual. He would turn on nerve and muscle-power, and would hurl
+avalanches of music and torrents of notes at his audience till he, in
+his turn, was overwhelmed with thunders of applause. And those were
+the days, we must remember, when but few men could play at a greater
+rate than twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; when grand pianos were
+not yet ironclad and armour-plated, or had learnt proudly to display
+the maker's name on their broadside when they went forth to do battle
+on the concert field.
+
+[Illustration: COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS.]
+
+Brassin used to draw inane caricatures of himself, which he would
+present to us with a triumphant laugh of immoderate calibre. I have
+preserved some of these, but decidedly prefer du Maurier's rendering
+of our common friend. In the accompanying drawing he shows him at the
+piano, entertaining us on "A rainy day."
+
+"Ah! Felix, amico mio," he says, "may thy room be always as jolly,
+thy coffee be ever so sweet, as on that happy morning! May Brassin's
+fingers be ever as brilliant and inspired! May Tag be ever as lazy,
+and with equal satisfaction to himself, and may I never be blinder!
+Amen."
+
+That sketch admirably pourtrays the lankiness and flabbiness of
+Brassin's figure, contrasting as it did with the strength of the wrist
+and the grip of the fingers. He was certainly a fine subject for du
+Maurier, whom I always looked upon as a sort of vivisector of music
+and musicians, of their methods and their moods. A brilliant career
+awaited Louis Brassin, but it was to be suddenly and unexpectedly cut
+off. He died some ten years ago at the age of forty-four.
+
+In 1858 my father came on a visit to Antwerp with my mother and my
+youngest sister, Clara. Wherever my father took up his abode, even
+temporarily, a grand piano would in the natural course of events
+gravitate towards him, and a select circle of art lovers would soon be
+grouped around it. Amongst the friends in the Antwerp circle were--Van
+Lerius, Tadema, Baron Leys, Heyermans, and Bource. My sister at that
+time was a bright and happy creature, not long out of her teens,
+full of hopes--alas! never to be realised, and of talents never to be
+matured. The large dark eyes--they seemed the gift of her godmother,
+the famous Malibran--reflected the artist's soul, and a grand soprano
+voice spoke its powerful language. Du Maurier and she were soon on a
+brother and sisterly footing, and they ever remained so.
+
+[Illustration: CLARA MOSCHELES.]
+
+Of the pleasant evenings we of the circle spent together I recall one
+in particular. My sister had been singing one song after another;
+my father was engaged in an animated conversation with Stefani,
+the pianist, on the relative merits of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Du
+Maurier and I had been sitting at the farther end of the room, talking
+of his eyes. At that time one doctor held out hopes; another, a great
+authority, had considered it his painful duty not to conceal the
+truth from his patient, and had, with much unction and the necessary
+complement of professional phraseology, prepared him for the worst.
+The sight of one eye had gone, that of the other would follow. Those
+were anxious days, both for him and for his friends; but, whatever
+he felt, he could talk about his trouble with perfect equanimity,
+and I often wondered how quietly he took it, and how cheerfully he
+would tell me that he was "fearfully depressed." That evening I had
+been putting the chances of a speedy recovery before him, and making
+predictions based, I am bound to admit, on nothing more substantial
+than my ardent hopes. But du Maurier was too much of a philosopher to
+be satisfied with such encouragement as I could give, and said: "No, I
+had better face the enemy and be prepared for the worst. If it comes,
+you see, my dear fellow, there is Nature's law of compensation, and
+I firmly believe that one cannot lose one faculty without being
+compensated by some great gain elsewhere. I suppose one gets to see
+more inside as things grow darker outside. If one can't paint, one
+must do something else--write perhaps; that is, as long as one can,
+and then, if the steam accumulates, and one wants a safety valve to
+let it off, dictate." Happily, to this day he writes, and need not
+have recourse to dictation.
+
+When we joined our friends we found Van Lerius and Heyermans had been
+pressed into the service, and were making sketches for my sister's
+album. Du Maurier took up a pencil, and, with a few characteristic
+touches, drew that sister's eyes. "Quand je les vois," he wrote
+underneath, "j'oublie les miens. (Reflexion d'un futur aveugle.) When
+I see them I forget my own. (Reflections of a man going blind.)"
+
+Soon the main business of the evening was resumed. Was it Beethoven's
+sonata for piano and violin, or a mighty improvisation on classical
+themes that came first? I do not recollect; but I remember that du
+Maurier's rendering of Balfe's "When other lips and other hearts,"
+with my scratch accompaniment, was warmly greeted by all lips and
+hearts present.
+
+When these pleasant evenings had come to an end, the friendly
+intercourse was not allowed to drop, and so a number of sketches by
+her new friends found their way into Miss Clara's album.
+
+In the following winter, when I left on a short visit to Leipsic, he
+sent her a few lines through me. I quote from his letter because
+the wording is peculiar, and illustrates his capacity for expressing
+himself in a language that he had to evolve from his inner
+consciousness:--
+
+"Herr Rag schickt zu Fräulein Moscheles _sein_ empfehlung und _ihren_
+bruder; es wird höflicht gebeten das sie wird die sach reciprokiren,
+und in fünftzen dägen _ihr_ empfehlung und _seinen_ freund zuruck
+schicken."
+
+For the benefit of those whose inner consciousness is not in touch
+with the above, I give the English version:--
+
+"Mr. Rag sends _his_ greeting and _her_ brother to Miss Moscheles, and
+kindly requests her to reciprocate the proceeding in a fortnight by
+returning _her_ greeting and _his_ friend."
+
+[Illustration: "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+UND IHREN BRUDER."]
+
+[Illustration: LIX.]
+
+When I think how easily and spontaneously such sketches dropped from
+his pen, I am reminded of a passage in one of Mendelssohn's letters to
+my mother; he sends her the _Mailied_ and says: "This morning a song
+came to me. I really must write it down for you." So, too, from the
+first the pen-and-ink compositions came to du Maurier. His talent
+manifested itself not only in a desire to illustrate this or that
+incident or adventure, but also in his inexhaustible capacity for
+making something out of nothing, and as the nothing was never lacking,
+he might well say: "Dear Bobtail, I will never write without sending
+my compliments to thine album." His rendering of "Cher Lix," for
+instance, takes the shape of a graceful monogram, or diplogram, or
+whatever I ought to call a combination of our two profiles and my
+name.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He starts a short missive with a sketch of himself seated in his
+trunk, pipe in mouth, and says: "Dear Bobtail, I write to you out of
+sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to pack up for the next
+half-hour." Or he draws himself looking over my shoulder whilst I am
+writing to my sister and puts the supposed context of my letter:--
+
+[Illustration: AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----]
+
+"Bobtail writes (in German of course):
+
+"I won't write any more, for there's an indiscreet fellow looking over
+my ----"
+
+"_Rag_. It's not true, I swear. (For Miss Clara.)"
+
+[Illustration: DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN.]
+
+Another time he wants me to send him some brushes and various other
+painting materials he enumerates: "Oh, and a little thing like this
+for oil to do the thing cheesy." He depicts himself quite elated; his
+eyes seemed so much better that he had once more resumed work in the
+studio of his friend Goyers. "Gruss from maternal and self," he ends;
+"ganz hertzlich; come soon, or write soon, or do something soon, hang
+it.--Thy RAG, jusqu' à la mort."
+
+[Illustration: "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI."]
+
+Monsieur Staps, Sous-Chef of the "Guides," the best military band in
+Brussels, was a friend of ours. He had invited us to one of the famous
+Concerts du Conservatoire, a treat in anticipation of which du Maurier
+at once takes to the pen, and shows us in classical garments and
+dignified attitudes listening to the "young men of the Conservatorio."
+"Sketch represents," he says "Claudius Felix et Publius Busso, cum
+centurione Guidorum, audientes juvenes Conservatorioni, A.D. CCLVIII."
+The "Busso" derived from his full name--George Louis Palmella Busson
+du Maurier.
+
+In striking contrast with the last drawing is the next. Here we are
+decidedly anything but conventional in our attire, as he depicts us
+in "Double-bedded room, Brussels. Time 11 a.m. (train starts 11.20).
+Bobtail's face being rather smutty, he washes it, and Rag's boots
+being rather tight, he puts them on at leisure, during which process
+he has time to smoke three pipes. _Bobtail_. Bub-bub-bub-bub ... whew
+... pouf!... _Rag_. How many?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A favourite theme of his was his supposed inability to shine on
+occasions when I had introduced him to friends of mine, and was
+particularly anxious to show him off to advantage, and then, again,
+the unrelenting fate that would swiftly overtake him if he ventured
+to put himself forward. I need not say that the inability and the
+discomfiture existed only in his imagination, for in all circles he
+was ever appreciated and admired. But he would have it otherwise, and
+pourtrays us side by side with the legend--
+
+[Illustration: "The height of enjoyment. Rag thinking of his eyes, in
+a pair of tight boots, with Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever,
+you stupid muff!'"]
+
+Another drawing shows what happened when for once in a way he presumed
+to accept the homages of the fair.
+
+"One fine morninge, earlie, at ye Café de la Plage, Blankenberghe, ye
+celebrated Rag, deeming himself alone, treateth himself to a private
+performance of ye Padre furioso e figlia infelice, in imitatione of
+his illustrious friende, Felix Bobtailo. Presentlie a voice exclaimeth
+behind him, 'Monsieur, permettez moi de vous féliciter,' and a ladie
+politelie maketh him complimente on his talente. Rag replieth that
+she must not be surprised thereat, as hys life has been spent among
+ye great musicians, and that therefore he can scarcelie helpe being a
+consummate musician himselfe. Shortly after as he lighteth hys cigarre
+at ye barre, he enquireth bumptiously, 'Who might that good ladie be?'
+'She is the prima-donna of the Munich Opera, Monsieur.' Whereupon ye
+soul of ye humiliated Rag sinketh into hys bootes, and he retireth for
+ever under a perpetual extinguisher.
+
+"Ye hero of ye above unfortunate adventure presenteth hys compliments
+to Miss Clara Moscheles, and beggeth she will deigne to accepte
+ye sketche in acknowledgment of ye last box of 'acidulated
+lemon-flavoured droppes' entrusted to her brother's care (need he
+remark that they have not yet reached their destination).
+
+"Miss Clara is invited to observe how cunninglie ye profile of Rag is
+made to imitate that of her talented brother."
+
+[Illustration: YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE.]
+
+Du Maurier's stay in Blankenberghe was but short. He soon went to
+Düsseldorf to put himself under the treatment of a famous oculist,
+Hofrath de Leeuwe, who resided not far from there at Gräfrath. He
+wrote, in high spirits: "Spent yesterday in Gräfrath; jolly place,
+lots of beauties, plenty of singing and sketching and that sort of
+thing, you know. Long walks in beautiful valleys, most delightful. The
+fact is, I'm so beastly merry since I've been here that I don't think
+I'm quite sane, and altogether only want your periodical visits and
+permission to have my fling on Saturday nights to be in heaven. Doctor
+says he'll do me good; have to go to Gräfrath once a week. Ça me bote
+joliment. Good-bye, my old. Thine ever
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He had met some old acquaintances and fraternised with some English
+and American artists, had got into the swim of Gräfrath society, such
+as it was, and was soon placed on a pedestal, whilst sundry beauties
+sat at his feet and, to the best of my belief, sighed. "They all want
+me to make etchings of the little can-cans and lick-spittlings going
+on here. Splendid study; shall think about it. Carry novel, of course,
+adjourned _sine die_; haven't got time just now--you know what a
+fellow I am. Just got her letter; very naïve and amusing--but don't
+tell her so, or else she will pose for that and spoil it. Here is a
+little drawing for you. Do all honour to it, since it has met with a
+little ovation here."
+
+[Illustration: AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR.
+
+"SHE. REALLY I DON'T SEE THE SLIGHTEST MOTE IN YOUR EYES."
+
+"HE. NO, BUT I CAN SEE THE BEAMS IN YOURS."]
+
+He calls it "a new adaptation from the New Testament." He and a
+charming "she" sit waiting their turn at the Hofrath's door. _He_
+is looking into her eyes and _she_ into his. "Really I don't see the
+slightest mote in your eyes," says she. "No, but I can see the beams
+in yours," he replies.
+
+[Illustration: "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!"]
+
+Did du Maurier ever attempt to shave anybody, I wonder? According
+to one of the sketches he sent me from Düsseldorf he did, and was so
+engaged on a blind man Kennedy, when a Captain Marius comes on the
+scene and says, in discreet whisper and with much concern, "I say,
+governor, mind you don't gash his throat as you did that poor old
+Spaniard's! (_Out loud_) How d'ye do, Kennedy?"
+
+The same Mr. Kennedy figures once more, when, unaware of the presence
+of the captain, he discreetly informs the professor that Captain
+Marius Blueblast "is na' but a sinfu' blackguard."
+
+[Illustration: MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS
+THE PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+BLACKGUARD."]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A portrait he drew of the doctor was a great success. "I have done the
+old cock's portrait stunningly," he says; "nine crosses of the Legion
+of Honour, &c. Not a sou into my pocket; all for poor-box. Fancy a
+fellow like me making presents to the poor-box (_vide_ sketch)! But as
+the portrait will be very much spilt about (_répandu_), I may fish a
+stray order or two. I have followed your advice for a whole week and
+done a magnificent Framboisy. Shall not attempt to go on until you
+are here to give me another stirring-up. Am going to Antwerp next week
+(always am). Shall you be moving too? Journey together--great fun.
+Take care of my purse and passport, and see my trunks are locked."
+
+[Illustration: MEETING IN DÃœSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF
+THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:--
+
+  "Dark was the sun! Heavy the clouds on the cliffs of Oithona--when
+  the fair-headed son of the Maurialva crossed his claymore with
+  the stern dark-browed Bobthailva and swore friendship on the names
+  of Carry and Damask."]
+
+I was moving, and as du Maurier kept on being about to go to Antwerp,
+I went to pay him a flying visit at Düsseldorf on my way to Paris. We
+sat into the small hours of the morning (as he depicts us), talking
+of the past, present, and future, a long-necked Rhine-wine bottle and
+two green glasses beside us, our hopes and aspirations rising with
+the cloud that curled from my ever-glowing cigar. We talked till
+his fertile imagination took us across the sea, and "Ragmar of the
+Maurialva and Bobthailva, the son of Moscheles, swore eternal amity on
+their native heath."
+
+Damask was another beauty whom we appreciated, perhaps all the more
+because we knew she was dying of consumption.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Paris I was probably absorbed in some work I had in hand and must
+have neglected du Maurier, for he writes urging me to answer by return
+of post and give an account of myself. He had been visited, he says,
+by an alarming nightmare, which he forthwith sketches for my benefit.
+Carry, the Circe, had captured the lion. The noble beast--that was
+me--had succumbed to the wiles of the enchantress, and submitted
+tamely to being combed and brushed and to having his claws clipped
+by her hand. Like birds of a feather, so do lions of a name,
+flock together. And so another noble beast--that was he--is seen
+approaching, presumably to claim his share of the combing and clipping
+and of whatever other favours may be forthcoming.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Another time when, I suppose, I was again letting him wait for an
+answer, he writes from Düsseldorf: "DEAR BOBTAIL,--Est-ce que tu
+te donnes le genre de m'oublier par hazard? I have been expecting a
+letter from you every day, running thus: 'DEAR RAG,--Come to Paris
+_immediately_, to illustrate thirty-six periodical papers which I have
+got for you. In haste, Bobtail.' My old pal, Tom Armstrong, is here,
+working hard; eyes the same as ever. Write soon and tell all about
+that portrait. Düsseldorf rencontre was jolly." The letter is headed
+by a drawing representing me soaring heavenwards, whilst he, chained
+to the spot, is philosophically consulting the cards on his prospects
+of release.
+
+[Illustration] Then comes a postscript: "Going in for this sort of
+thing."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Will you come old fellow and be
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I suppose I answered saying that I only put off writing till I had
+mustered the full complement of periodicals. If I was in a prophetic
+mood I may have added that it was all right, and that very shortly
+thirty-six editors would be clamouring for his work, and perhaps
+thirty-six States hallooing for him to come over _immediately_. Hoping
+to be punch'd at an early date, I probably remained his, &c., &c.
+
+The early date came, for, before his final return to England, we met
+once more in Antwerp and Malines. And that takes me back to Carry.
+She was changed to her advantage, so, at least, the world of Malines
+thought. We were not quite so sure that the change would prove
+altogether to her advantage. She had been quite pretty enough before,
+and we thought she could well have done without developing further
+physical attractions. She had always known how to use her eyes, not
+unfrequently shedding their beneficent light on two persons at the
+same time, and we considered that that number should not be exceeded.
+But now their activity seemed daily increasing, and it was not without
+concern that we noticed in her a certain restlessness and a growing
+tendency to discuss with the serpent questions relating to the
+acquisition of prohibited apples. After a while, and perhaps in
+consequence of the good advice we gave her, she sobered down and
+surprised us by her docility; but at best her moods were uncertain and
+she puzzled us much.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Now, Bobtail," said Rag, as we walked along the sober old streets
+of Malines, discussing the state of Carry's mind and heart. (He has
+omitted the streets, but has put us into our very best mediæval suit.)
+"Now, Bobtail, what do you think? Is she in love? And if so, with
+whom?"
+
+"She may be, or she may be not," said Bobtail, with oracular
+discretion; "but, if she is, it can only be with one of us. She would
+not waste her sentiment on a native whilst we were within reach."
+
+"But which of us is it?" asked Rag, somewhat alarmed.
+
+"I know not; but I hope neither," answered the oracle thus appealed
+to; "but the state of her mind, I believe, is this: If she were to
+marry you, she would fall in love with me; and if she were to marry
+me, she would fall in love with you."
+
+This dictum must have impressed du Maurier, for it started him on
+a series of drawings, with accompanying text in illustration of it.
+There were to be two volumes. The first, in which I figure as the
+husband, was rapidly produced; the second, in which he was to be the
+husband, never saw the light of day. It was shelved _sine die_, a
+proceeding I always thought particularly unfair, as he never gave _me_
+a chance of being loved. I am compensated, however, by the possession
+of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or "Cari-catures," as
+they are called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  "If Carry were to marry one of us,
+  I'd give thee any odds she would be safe,
+  O Rag, to love the other--"
+
+      (_Shakespere_. "_Two Swells of Antwerp_.")
+
+"Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story illustrates
+the truth of the poet's words. His points will be so much better
+understood later on, when some of the problems connected with our
+matrimonial laws have been solved, that it would be a pity to publish
+them prematurely. Suffice it to show how Félix and Georges produced
+the portrait of Picciola. "Félix put all his talent and Georges all
+his good will into it, for, once completed, Picciola was to select
+a husband from the two suitors. After much cogitation she decides
+for Félix, whilst offering her friendship to Georges, who seems but
+moderately satisfied with this arrangement; and then, when husband and
+wife leave for distant countries, Georges, who cannot bear the thought
+of being parted from his dear Picciola, enters the service of the
+young couple and accompanies them on their honeymoon." This mythical
+journey gives the author opportunities for the subtle psychological
+analysis of a young lady's heart, strongly inclined to revolt against
+some of the conventions laid down by Society for its regulation.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA.]
+
+We had fondly hoped we might escort and protect her on the thorny
+path of life, as pertinently shown in the drawing,[3] where we are
+all three going along, our arms and hands fraternally intertwined and
+linked together in perfect symmetry, as if therewith to tie the knot
+of friendship and make it fast for ever and a day.
+
+[Footnote 3: See Frontispiece.]
+
+[Illustration: "ON THEIR HONEYMOON."]
+
+But it was not to be. A big wave intervened to separate us, and swept
+away all traces of the road before us. Poor Carry! Yes, she had a
+story. Sad. Bright. Then sad again. First she gave to Amor what was
+Amor's, and then to Hymen what was Hymen's. She tasted of the apple
+her friend the serpent had told her so much about. Then--"la femme
+à une chute est rare comme le Niagara"--and there are more apples
+than one in the Garden of Eden--she tried another; such a bad one
+unfortunately. It was a wonder it didn't poison her, body and soul,
+but it didn't. There was a moment when the Angel with the flaming
+sword threatened to cast her adrift, and it would have fared badly
+with her had not a helping hand come to save her. But sound as she
+was at the core, and true, she rallied and rose again to new life and
+unhoped-for happiness. It was a young doctor who came to the rescue;
+a mere boy he seemed to look at; but a man he was in deed and word. He
+worked hard and walked fast; he defied convention and challenged fate.
+With a stout heart he laboured to raise Carry to the level of his
+affections, and with a strong hand he tightened his hold upon her. He
+loved her passionately, devotedly, and she, clinging to him as to the
+instrument of her salvation, gradually regained her better self, and,
+slowly but surely, learnt to find in her own heart the greatest of
+treasures that woman can bestow upon man. But he was a Southerner of
+the French meridional type, excitable and impulsive, and, so, alas!
+he was jealous of Carry's northern friends and snapped the thread
+asunder that bound her to them. We only knew, and that we learnt in
+a roundabout way, that she was the happiest little wife in Paris.
+Once, and only once, she wrote to us, to tell us how complete was
+her happiness. A crowning glory had come; a little glory to nurse
+and fondle, to cry over--tears of joy; to smile to--the prettiest,
+foolishest of mother's smiles; to pray for and to worship from the
+bottom of her little blossoming soul. It was not till three years
+later that I was in Paris and succeeded in picking up the thread of
+Carry's story. Hale and hearty, overflowing with health and happiness,
+the young doctor had gone to his work at the hospital. He came
+home blood-poisoned, to die in his wife's arms. It was a case of
+self-sacrifice in the cause of science, of heroic devotion to a
+fellow-creature. And the young widow was left alone again, with none
+to weep over (tears of anguish this time) but the little glory, who,
+poor thing, could only wonder, but not soothe. What can have become
+of Carry once more cast adrift in Paris to fight the battle of life in
+this hard ever love-making world?
+
+We never knew.
+
+Back to England. The time had come when--
+
+  "Who was to be lucky and who to be rich,
+  Who'd get to the top of the tree;
+  Was a mystery which
+  Dame Fortune, the witch,
+  _Was_ to tell du Maurier and me."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+What with the boxing-gloves and one thing and another, he had been
+"getting English again by degrees." In a drawing he shows us how he
+is going through the process arm-in-arm with his old friend, Tom
+Armstrong, now the Art-Director of that very English institution, the
+South Kensington Museum. Armstrong and T.R. Lamont, the man who to
+this day bears such a striking resemblance to our friend the Laird,
+had presented du Maurier with a complete edition of Edgar Allan Poe's
+works. His appreciation of that author is expressed in a letter which
+he addressed to Armstrong, and it needs not much reading between the
+lines to gather what was the literary diet best suited to his taste.
+It is amusing, too, to notice the little shadows cast here and there
+by coming events.
+
+(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time being,
+synonymous with George du Maurier.)
+
+  "Gulielmus Barlow, Thomasino Armstrong,
+  Whom we hope is 'gaillardement' getting along
+  And salubrious, ave!
+
+                     You'll wonder, I ween,
+  At Barlow's turning topsy-tur--poet I mean.
+  I take odds you'll exclaim, 'twixt a grunt and a stare,
+  'Gottferdummi' the beggar's gone mad, I declare,
+  And his wits must have followed his 'peeper'--not so;
+  He will give you the wherefore, will William Barlow--
+  Viz: he's so seedy and blue, he's so deucedly triste,
+  He's so d----d out of sorts, he's so d----d out of tune,
+  That for mere consolation he cannot resist
+  The temptation of holding with Tommy commune.
+  Then that _he_ should be bothered alone, isn't fair,
+  So he'll just bother _you_ a bit, pour se distraire,
+  This will partly account for the milk--then the fact is
+  That some heavy swell says that it's deuced good practice,
+  And then it's a natural consequence, too,
+  Of the classical culture he's just been put through.
+  I'll explain: T'other day the maternal did say,
+  'You are sadly deficient in reading, Bill; nay
+  Do not wrinkle your forehead and turn up your nose
+  (That elegant feature of William Barlow's!)
+  You've read Thackeray, Dickens, I know; but it's fit
+  You should study the _classical_ authors a bit.
+  Heaven knows when your sight will be valid again,
+  You may throw down the pencil and take up the pen,
+  And you cannot have too many strings to your bow.'
+  --'A-a-amen!' says young William to Mrs. Barlow.
+
+  So we're treated (our feelings we needn't define)
+  To a beastly slow book called the 'Fall and Decline'
+  By a fellow called Gibbon, be d----d to him; then
+  Comes the 'Esprit des lois et des moeurs,' from the pen
+  Of a chap hight _Voltaire_--un pédant--qui je crois
+  Ne se fichait pas mal et des moeurs et des lois.
+  After which just to vary the pleasures, _Rousseau_
+  By Emile--no: Emile by _Rousseau_? Gad! I know
+  That which ever it be it's infernally slow,
+  And I'm glad Billy's neither Emile nor Rousseau--
+  Such my fate is to listen to, longing to slope--
+  Then come horrid long epics of Dryden and Pope,
+  Which I mentally swear a big oath I'll confine
+  To the tombs of the Capulets, every line--
+  Not but what the old beggars may do in their way,
+  Gad! Uncommonly fine soporifics are they;
+  But they seem after Tennyson, Shelley, and Poe
+  Just a trifle _too_ Rosy for Billy Barlow--
+  Oh, dear Raggedy, oh!
+  Ulalume and Ænone for William Barlow.
+
+  Erst, they're short. Then they breathe in their mystical tone
+  An essence, a spirit, a draught which alone
+  Can content Billy's lust, for the weird and unknown
+  (Billy's out of his depth) they've an undefined sense
+  Of the infinite 'mersed in their sorrow intense
+  (Billy's sinking! A rope! Some one quick! Damn it! hence
+  That mystical feeling so sweetly profound
+  Which weaves round the senses a spell (Billy's drowned)
+  (Here run for the drags of the Royal Humane!)
+  A mystical feeling, half rapture, half pain,
+  Such as moves in sweet melodies, such as entrances
+  In Chopin's 'Etudes,' and in Schubert's 'Romances.'
+
+  Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'!
+  Have you ever heard these pretty decently played?
+  If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe
+  That a treat most delicious you have in reserve.
+  Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of clover,
+  While Stefani rapidly fingers them over,
+  Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over.
+  Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream
+  Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme,
+  Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme!
+  Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem,
+  In their sad wild unresting irregular flow
+  Just expressly concocted for William Barlow.
+  Oh! dear Raggedy, oh!
+  Why, they ravish the heart, sir, of Billy Barlow."
+
+Du Maurier's stay on the Continent had come to a close some time
+before mine, and to that circumstance I owe several letters in which
+he speaks of his first experiences in London. He revelled in the
+metamorphosis he was going through, and illustrated the past and the
+present for my better comprehension. There on one side of the Channel
+he shows the dejected old lion of Malines gnawing his tobaccoless clay
+pipe, and then on the other the noble beast stalking along jauntily
+with tail erect and havannah alight. He wrote in high spirits:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    "DEAR BOBTAIL,--I need not tell you how very jolly it was to
+    get your letter and to hear good news of you. My reason for
+    not writing was that I intended to make my position before
+    giving of my news to anybody. I was just funky and blue about
+    it at first, but fortunately I was twigged almost immediately,
+    and, barring my blessed idleness, am getting on splendaciously
+    just now. Lots of my things have been out. I'm going in for
+    becoming a swell.
+
+    "How strange to think of such a change. I'm leading the
+    merriest of lives, and only hope it will last. Living with
+    Henley, No. 85, Newman Street; very jolly and comfortable.
+    Chumming with all the old Paris fellows again, all of them
+    going ahead. There's Whistler is already one of the great
+    celebrities here--Poynter getting on. This is a very jolly
+    little village, and I wish you were over here. They do make
+    such a fuss with an agreeable fellow like you or me, for
+    instance. But I suppose Paris is just as jolly in its way.
+    My ideas of Paris are all Bohème, quartier latin, &c., et si
+    c'était à recommencer, ma foi je crois que je dirais 'zut.'
+    This is a hurried and absurd letter to write to an old pal
+    like you, but I hardly ever have time for a line--out late
+    every night and make use of what little daylight there is in
+    Newman Street to draw. 'S'il faisait au moins clair de Lune
+    pendant le jour dans ce sacré pays.' I daresay I shall treat
+    myself to a trip over to Paris as soon as the weather is
+    jollier. I intend to go abroad this summer to do some etchings
+    'qui seront aux pommes.' Is there any chance whatever of your
+    coming over here before? You mustn't form your opinion of my
+    performances by what you may happen to see, as half of what I
+    do is spoiled by bad engraving (that's why I intend to etch),
+    and what I have done, bar one or two things, are merely little
+    chic sketches for money. I have many plans; among others I
+    intend to bring out a series in _Punch_, with which I shall
+    take peculiar care--something quite original. I think you
+    would precious soon get more portraits than you could paint
+    here, but if you are getting on so well in Paris, of course it
+    would be madness to leave. But I do not like the idea of your
+    not being one of us--such a band of brothers full of jolly
+    faults that dovetail beautifully. It was quite a freak of mine
+    coming over here; I did it against everybody's advice--came
+    over with a ten-pound note and made the rest. 'Your friend
+    Bobtail seems to be the only man who had no doubt of your
+    talent,' writes my mother. 'Enfin c'est prouvé que je suis au
+    moins bon a quelque chose.' Do you go much into the world?
+    I go knocking about as happily as possible, singing and
+    smoking cigars everywhere. Jimmy Whistler and I go 'tumbling'
+    together, as Thackeray says. Would you were here to tumble
+    with us! Enfin, mon bon, écris moi vite."
+
+When at last I too returned to London I was privileged to take my
+humble share in the "tumbling," as also in the steady process that was
+gradually to wean us from Bohemia. We tumbled pretty regularly into
+the Pamphilon, a restaurant within a stone's throw of Oxford Circus,
+of the familiar type that exhibits outside its door a bill of fare
+with prices appended, to be studied by those who count their shillings
+and pence as we did. We had got beyond the days when no wines are sour
+and when tough meat passes muster, if there is only plenty of it; we
+wanted a sound dinner, and we got it at the Pamphilon; to wind up we
+adjourned to the coffee-room and talked and read and smoked.
+
+Stacey Marks, Poynter, Jimmy Whistler, and Charles Keene were among
+the crew, and others not so well known to fame. Pleasant hours those
+and gemüthliche, as the Germans say; how different the after-dinner
+clay pipe or cheap weed of those times to the post-prandial havannah
+we now complacently whiff at our friend's Mæcenas' hospitable table!
+Yes, things have changed, my dear Rag, since the day we were paying
+our bill, and you addressed the waiter with superb affability: "Here,
+Charles, is a penny for you. I know it isn't much, but I can't afford
+more."
+
+It is hard to fancy anything less like Bohemia than Regent Street,
+but a little incident that occurred as I walked down that busy
+thoroughfare one afternoon recalls the best traditions of the land in
+which practical jokes abound. I was going along without any definite
+aim, killing time and gathering wool, flanéing, in fact; perhaps there
+was a touch of the foreigner about me, for I had only lately returned
+from abroad; anyway I suddenly found myself singled out as a fit
+subject to be victimised. I felt a hand stealthily sliding into my
+pocket; on the spur of the moment I grasped that hand in as much of an
+iron grip as I could muster. Then--I hardly know why--I waited quite
+a number of seconds before I turned round. When I did, it was du
+Maurier's face that I beheld, blanched with terror. Those seconds
+had been ages to him. Good heavens! had he made a mistake? Was it not
+Bobtail's but another man's hand that was clutching his wrist? Thank
+Heaven, it was Bobtail's!
+
+There never was an occasion, before or after, I feel absolutely sure,
+when du Maurier was more truly glad to see me. His colour rapidly
+returned, and he swore that of all the bonnes blagues this was the
+best; but for all that, one thing is certain--he has never since
+attempted to pick pockets in Regent Street.
+
+A delightful compromise between Bohemia and the land where
+well-regulated Society rules supreme, was the ground on which stood
+Moray Lodge, the residence of Arthur Lewis, the head of the well-known
+firm of Lewis and Allenby.
+
+We have read of him before:--
+
+    "Sir Lewis Cornelys, as everybody knows, lives in a palace on
+    Campden Hill, a house of many windows, and, whichever window
+    he looks out of, he sees his own garden and very little else.
+    There was no pleasanter or more festive house than his in
+    London, winter or summer."
+
+I quote this, as probably it may not be known to everybody that Sir
+Lewis was knighted on the memorable occasion of Trilby's birthday,
+when she was presented at the drawing--and every other--room. With
+much kindly fore-thought his friend and biographer allows him to be
+eighty years old in the early sixties, thereby enabling him to have
+attained to-day the ripe old age of one hundred and fourteen.
+
+Well, he was one of du Maurier's earliest friends, and when Taffy
+the Laird, and Little Billie, "a-smokin' their pipes and cigyars,"
+told the cabby to drive to Mechelen Lodge, I found my way to what I
+called Moray Lodge, and met them there. And there too, to be sure,
+was Glorioli, "the tall, good-looking swarthy foreigner from whose
+scarcely parted, moist, thick, bearded lips issued the most ravishing
+sounds that had ever been heard from throat of man or woman or boy."
+
+As we now empty one or the other of the million bottles that are
+about, marked "De Soria, Bordeaux," we often think with gratitude of
+the great wine-grower and still greater singer, so correctly described
+as "singing best for love or glory in the studios of his friends."
+
+To return to Arthur Lewis:--
+
+He occupied an exceptional position, inasmuch as he had made his house
+a centre towards which intellectual London gravitated. When he had
+done this, that, and the other to make his bachelor days memorable to
+a host of friends, he wound up by marrying one of England's fairest
+women, our great actress, Kate Terry. It was in those early days that
+Ellen, the débutante, was introduced to the dramatic world as "Kate
+Terry's sister." Since then Kate, having elected to rest on her
+laurels, is proud to be referred to by the younger generation as
+"Ellen Terry's sister."
+
+In early life Lewis had various roads open to him. Born, as he was,
+with the capacity of a man of business, the means and opportunities of
+a man of leisure, and the talents of an artist, he managed to follow
+the three roads at the same time, and they all led to well-deserved
+success. He was to be found at his desk in Regent Street, at his easel
+in the studio, or on the threshold of that big billiard and reception
+room which he had built to entertain his friends. Himself an artist,
+and for many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was on
+terms of close friendship with the men who had made their mark in the
+art-world, and with many who were destined to become famous. He was
+a Mæcenas of the right sort, knowing a good thing when he came across
+it, and frequently acquiring it before the sleepy world awoke to its
+merits.
+
+I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he welcomed the first
+pictures Joseph Israels exhibited in England in 1862. Neither in
+the English nor in the Dutch department of the Exhibition could he
+ascertain whether these two pictures, "The Drowned Fisherman" and
+"Washing the Cradle," were for sale. But luck would have it that he
+was introduced to Israels at the Academy _soirée_, and the artist,
+assuring him that the pictures were "certainly for sale," Lewis
+secured the coveted works, and was thus the first to establish
+Israels' fame in England.
+
+The gatherings in Moray Lodge were unique in their way. It was
+characteristic of the master and the house that they made everybody
+feel at home, from the titled aristocrat in the dress-suit to the
+free-and-easy brother-brush or pen, and the sometimes out-at-elbow
+friend Bohemian.
+
+There was the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lorne, Lord Dufferin,
+Mr. Frederic Leighton, Associate of the Royal Academy, Fred Walker,
+who sang tenor in the choir, of which more presently, and who on
+several occasions designed the cards of invitation for Lewis.
+There was Lord Houghton, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rossetti,
+Landseer, Daubigny, Gustave Doré, Arthur Sullivan, Leech, Keene,
+Tenniel, &c., &c. It is as hard to pass those names over without
+comment as it must have been to run the gauntlet of Scylla and
+Charybdis, for every one of them brings back some recollection, and
+calls upon the pen to start a paragraph with an "I well remember."
+
+But that would lead me away from Moray Lodge and the famous Saturday
+evenings, and I never was, and am not now, in a hurry to get away from
+that hospitable mansion.
+
+The billiard-table was boxed over on the gala nights and transformed
+into a buffet. It was covered with bottles and glasses, pipes and
+cigars, and towards the close of the evening with mountains of
+oysters. The amount we consumed on one occasion was 278 dozen, as I
+happen to know. But the great attraction at these gatherings was the
+part-singing of the twenty-five "Moray Minstrels." John Foster was the
+conductor, and led them to such perfection that the severest critic of
+the day, dear old crabbed Henry F. Chorley, proclaimed them the best
+representatives of the English school of glee-singing.
+
+Another no less interesting feature was the performance of small
+theatrical pieces. Du Maurier and Harold Power had given us charming
+musical duologues, like "Les Deux Aveugles," by Offenbach, and "Les
+Deux Gilles," with great success, and that led to further developments
+and far-reaching consequences. A small party of friends were dining
+with Lewis. "What shall we get up next?" was the question raised.
+"Something new and original," suggested the host. "Now, Sullivan, you
+should write us something." "All right," said Sullivan, "but how about
+the words? Where's the libretto?" "Oh, I'll write that," said Burnand.
+And thus those two were started. "Cox and Box," a travesty of "Box
+and Cox," was read and rehearsed a fortnight afterwards at Burnand's
+house, and the following Saturday it was performed at Moray Lodge.
+Du Maurier was "Box," Harold Power "Cox," and John Foster "Sergeant
+Bouncer." Du Maurier's rendering of "Hush-a-by, Bacon," was so
+sympathetic and tender that one's heart went out to the contents of
+the frying-pan, wishing them pleasant dreams.
+
+Then there was his famous duet with "Box," reciting their marriage to
+one and the same lady, and the long recitative in which the printer
+describes his elaborate preparations for suicide.
+
+How he solemnly walked to the cliff and heard the seagulls' mournful
+cry--and looked all around--there was nobody nigh. Then (disposing his
+bundle on the brink)--"Away to the opposite side I walked." ("Away"
+on the high A, that Sullivan put in on purpose for du Maurier, who
+possessed that chest-note in great fulness.)
+
+I must skip a few years and speak of a drawing that appeared in
+_Punch_ in 1875,[4] and which has a special interest for me; it brings
+back to my mind a happy thought of du Maurier's, which is closely
+connected with a particularly happy thought of my own, that took root
+then and has flourished ever since.
+
+[Footnote 4: Published by kind permission of the proprietors of
+_Punch_.]
+
+I must explain that there was a time when I had to console myself
+with the reflection that the course of true love never runs smooth. A
+lady whom in my mind I had selected as a mother-in-law, by no means
+reciprocated my feelings of respect and goodwill. But the young lady,
+her daughter, fortunately sided with me, and had, in fact, given her
+very willing consent to the change in her mother's position which I
+had suggested. I was naturally anxious to assure that young lady as
+frequently and as emphatically as possible how much I appreciated
+her assistance, and how determined I was never to have any other
+mother-in-law but the one of my choice; nor could there be anything
+obscure in such a declaration, as of three sisters in the family that
+particular one was the only unmarried one. But neither in obscure nor
+in explicit language was I allowed to approach her; a blockade was
+declared and rigorously enforced, and we were soon separated by a
+distance of some few hundred miles.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I can look back complacently on the troubles of those days now that
+twenty years have elapsed since I emerged victorious from the contest;
+but then the future looked blank and bleak, and I felt nonplussed and
+down-hearted. Knowing, however, what a faint heart is said never to
+win, I was anxious to keep mine up to the mark, and with a view to
+stimulating its buoyancy I went to make a friendly call on du Maurier.
+He would, I felt sure, be sympathetic, and, whatever else might be
+wanting in that troublesome eye of his, there would be a certain
+vivifying twinkle in it that could always set me up.
+
+It was as I expected, and I had the full benefit of the eye, and of an
+ear, too, that he lent willingly as I told him how matters stood.
+
+"Well," he said, "if you can't smuggle in a letter, let's smuggle in
+your portrait. It will be rather a joke if she comes across you in
+_Punch_. I've just got a subject in which I can use you."
+
+To be sure, I jumped at the idea, only beseeching him to make me
+as handsome as he possibly could, without losing sight of the main
+object, viz., that the young lady should be able to recognise me. Her
+mother too, I felt sure, would not fail to be duly impressed, for to
+figure in _Punch_ would raise me in her estimation as a person of no
+small importance.
+
+The drawing was made and published, and the scheme worked well;
+coupled, perhaps, with a few millions of other influences, and with
+the assistance of the Fates, it achieved the desired result, and
+before a year had elapsed the original drawing could be presented
+by du Maurier to the young lady, now become a bride, as a memento of
+bygone troubles.
+
+One more digression suggested by the name of Arthur Sullivan; it
+shall be the last. I am not going back to the time when we were boys
+together in Leipsic, but will only mention him in connection with
+Carry; this time Carry in another form.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Shortly after that big wave intervened that separated her from us a
+happy chance put me in possession of a dog, the most affectionate and
+lovable of Skye terriers.
+
+I named him Carry.
+
+That dog, his qualities and virtues, and especially his musical gifts,
+deserve more than a passing mention; but, trusting that he, like every
+dog, will have his day, I will here only transcribe a letter of his
+that he wrote with the assistance of his friend, Arthur Sullivan, who,
+attracted perhaps by the gifts above named, had kindly taken charge of
+him during my temporary absence on the Continent. Poor dog! He is dead
+now; so that there can be no indiscretion in publishing his bark and
+its translation. The former is best given in its original setting.
+The latter, purporting to be a "Translation of the foregoing by A.S.,"
+runs as follows:--
+
+    "MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED MASTER,--My kind friend, Mr. Sullivan,
+    who pretends to be as fond of me as you are, has taken me away
+    from the enjoyment of a delicious mutton bone, in order to
+    answer your letter; and as I cannot find a pen to suit me
+    well, he is writing whilst I dictate. I was very low-spirited
+    the other day after leaving you, and appeared to feel the
+    parting very much, but it soon wore off under the influence
+    of biscuit, bones, and kindness; indeed, I must do Sully and
+    his family the justice to say that they try to do the utmost
+    to make me happy and comfortable, although they don't always
+    succeed, for sometimes I appear dissatisfied (hoping,
+    _entre-nous_, by that means to get more out of them).
+
+    "I have several idiosyncrasies and failings, of which my
+    master (_pro tem._) is trying to correct me, but finds it
+    rather hard work, for I am not so easily brought out of them.
+    I have a will of my own, but Sully says: 'Train up a dog in
+    the way it should go, and he will not depart, &c., &c.'--and
+    Sully is right.
+
+    "Don't you think it is a bad plan to wash me with soap? I
+    think it deters me from licking my skin, and consequently
+    from having those ideas of cleanliness engendered within me
+    which are so necessary to every well-bred dog moving in good
+    society!
+
+    "I want to get back to my bone, but Sully says I must first
+    deliver a message from him. You are to give his love to your
+    dear parents (in which I heartily join), and tell them how
+    grieved he was that he did not see them to wish them 'God
+    speed' before they left England, and how it hurt him to think
+    that a long, long time would perhaps elapse before he should
+    see them again.
+
+    "And now, my dear master, I must say 'Good-bye.' Much love in
+    few words, in which Sully joins me.
+
+    "Believe me, ever your
+
+    "Attached and faithful dog,
+
+    [Illustration: Carry
+
+    X
+
+    his mark]
+
+    "F. MOSCHELES, Esq."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now I come to du Maurier's last letter--the best, as I am sure
+every right-minded person will admit. I have kept it "pour la bonne
+bouche" (excuse my quoting French. "Will me not of it," as our
+neighbours say; there are unassailable precedents for such quoting,
+you know--or ought to know). The letter in question speaks of an event
+so momentous, that of all events it is the one most worthy to "be
+marked with a white, white stone"; and marked it was, if not with a
+stone, with satins and laces and a veil and white orange blossoms.
+
+"Come and be introduced to the future Mrs. Kicky," it said. "She
+intends to celebrate her 21st birthday by a small dance. There will
+be friends and pretty girls, 'en veux tu, en violà.' So rek-lect,
+olf'lah, Tuesday, at half-past seven."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The drawing shows how I was introduced, and how graciously I was
+received.
+
+The letter needs a word of explanation, as it speaks of the "future
+Mrs. 'Kicky,'" and I have not yet mentioned that Kicky was but another
+name for du Maurier. He got it at an early period of his life. Just
+as any other baby less favoured by "Dame Fortune the witch" would have
+done, he gave himself his nickname. He picked it up in Brussels when
+he was two years old, and under the care of Flemish servants. They
+called him "Mannekin" (little man), and that he converted into
+"Kicky." I append one of the numerous varieties of his signature.
+
+[Illustration: Kick]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rag, Tag, and Bobtail had its day, and was shelved soon after
+we bid adieu to Bohemia; but the Kicky survived and flourished, and
+to-day not only his old chums, but those nearest and dearest to him,
+feel that they could not do without that particular appellation,
+associated as it is with a thousand and one happy memories.
+
+And having arrived at that busiest of stations, the Matrimonial
+Junction, where the converted bachelor alights and changes for Better
+or for Worse, this chapter fitly comes to a close, meant as it was
+only to sketch some of the pleasant recollections that I, in common
+with so many of his friends, have of du Maurier's bachelor days.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13517 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13517 ***</div>
+
+    <h1>In Bohemia with Du Maurier</h1>
+
+    <h3><i>The First of a Series of Reminiscences</i></h3>
+
+    <h4>BY</h4>
+
+    <h3>FELIX MOSCHELES</h3>
+
+    <h4><i>With</i> 63 <i>Original Drawings</i></h4>
+
+    <h4>BY</h4>
+
+    <h3>G. Du MAURIER</h3>
+
+    <h4><i>Illustrating the Artist's Life in the Fifties</i></h4>
+
+    <h4>LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN</h4>
+    <hr />
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/front.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/front.png"
+             alt="'FOR EVER AND A DAY.' (frontispiece)" /></a>"FOR EVER AND A DAY."
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page7"
+       id="page7"></a>{7}</span> 
+
+    <p><i>The few introductory words to this volume were written,
+    and the last proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news
+    overtook me in lovely Venice. My world, resplendent with
+    sunshine, was suddenly lost in darkness. The most lovable of
+    men, whose presence alone sufficed to make life worth living to
+    all those near and dear to him, was gone from amongst us. His
+    hand was no longer to hold those pens&mdash;the finely-pointed
+    one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His
+    well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth.</i></p>
+
+    <p><i>Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages
+    jars upon me. How differently would I attune the story of our
+    student days, were I to write it to-day in loving memory of my
+    friend!</i></p>
+
+    <p><i>But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book,
+    cordially endorsed by him, is printed and all but issued; he
+    would not let me recall it, I know. He himself, in his kindly,
+    simple way, had enjoyed my resuscitation of our early
+    recollections, and had here and there lent a helpful hand even
+    to the correcting of the
+    proofs.</i></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page8"
+       id="page8"></a>{8}</span> 
+
+    <p><i>To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as
+    I would now venture to record them, I must wait till the
+    heavier clouds have cleared away and left the picture, I would
+    draw once more to stand out brightly in the background of
+    Time.</i></p>
+
+    <p class="author"><i>FELIX MOSCHELES.</i></p>
+
+    <p><i>October, 1896.</i></p>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page9"
+       id="page9"></a>{9}</span> 
+
+    <h1>IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER</h1>
+
+    <h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+    <p>"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a
+    trifle more in my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time
+    before he published his "Trilby"; and that remark started us
+    talking of the good old times in Antwerp, and overhauling the
+    numerous drawings and sketches in which he so vividly depicted
+    the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed to me that some
+    of those drawings should be published, if only to show how my
+    now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In order
+    that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the
+    following pages.</p>
+
+    <p>The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not
+    the wild country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional
+    savages, so often described, but a little cultivated corner of
+    the land, as I found it in Antwerp, a mere background to the
+    incidents I had to relate. Such
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page10"
+       id="page10"></a>{10}</span> as it is, it may perhaps serve
+       here and there to point to the original soil from which were
+       eventually to spring some of the figures so familiar to us
+       to-day.</p>
+
+    <p>To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories,
+    and if I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that
+    pleasures shared are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I
+    always was, I am truly glad to have the opportunity of giving a
+    hearty welcome to those who may care to join my friend and
+    myself in our ramblings and our "tumblings."</p>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page11"
+       id="page11"></a>{11}</span> 
+
+    <h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+    <center>
+        PART I. <a href="#page17">17</a>
+    </center>
+
+    <center>
+        PART II. <a href="#page69">69</a>
+    </center>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page13"
+       id="page13"></a>{13}</span> 
+
+    <h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+    <div class="toc">
+        <p>"FOR EVER AND A DAY" <i>Frontispiece</i></p>
+
+        <p>THE ATELIER GLEYRE <a href="#page18">18</a></p>
+
+        <p>MY BLOUSE <a href="#page20">20</a></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">(<i>From an oil-sketch by Matthew
+        Maris.</i>)</p>
+
+        <p>PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES
+        <a href="#page27">27</a></p>
+
+        <p>FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING <a href="#page30">30</a></p>
+
+        <p>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE
+        <a href="#page32">32</a></p>
+
+        <p>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX <a href="#page32">32</a></p>
+
+        <p>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES
+        #33</p>
+
+        <p>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX <a href="#page33">33</a></p>
+
+        <p>F. S'IL ÉTAIT CHEVAL <a href="#page33">33</a></p>
+
+        <p>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES
+        <a href="#page34">34</a></p>
+
+        <p>"CE SACRÉ VÉSICATOIRE" <a href="#page35">35</a></p>
+
+        <p>ISABEL DU MAURIER <a href="#page35">35</a></p>
+
+        <p>MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?&mdash;WHICH
+        <a href="#page40">40</a></p>
+
+        <p>"INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" <a href="#page42">42</a></p>
+
+        <p>DU MAURIER IMPROVISING
+        <a href="#page43">43</a></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page14"
+           id="page14"></a>{14}</span> 
+
+        <p>HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+        BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG
+        <a href="#page44">44</a></p>
+
+        <p>THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+        HAT <a href="#page46">46</a></p>
+
+        <p>"BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+        TOBACCONISTE" <a href="#page49">49</a></p>
+
+        <p>"SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE"
+        <a href="#page50">50</a></p>
+
+        <p>A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR
+        <a href="#page57">57</a></p>
+
+        <p>THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY
+        <a href="#page60">60</a></p>
+
+        <p>FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY
+        <a href="#page64">64</a></p>
+
+        <p>"RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY
+        <a href="#page65">65</a></p>
+
+        <p>RAG <a href="#page72">72</a></p>
+
+        <p>BOBTAIL <a href="#page72">72</a></p>
+
+        <p>"WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+        HANG MYSELF, I WONDER." <a href="#page76">76</a></p>
+
+        <p>COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS
+        <a href="#page80">80</a></p>
+
+        <p>CLARA MOSCHELES <a href="#page83">83</a></p>
+
+        <p>"HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+        UND IHREN BRUDER." <a href="#page87">87</a></p>
+
+        <p>CHER LIX <a href="#page88">88</a></p>
+
+        <p>"AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY &mdash;&mdash;"
+        <a href="#page89">89</a></p>
+
+        <p>DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN <a href="#page90">90</a></p>
+
+        <p>"CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+        GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI"
+        <a href="#page91">91</a></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page15"
+           id="page15"></a>{15}</span> 
+
+        <p>DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS
+        <a href="#page93">93</a></p>
+
+        <p>THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT <a href="#page95">95</a></p>
+
+        <p>YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+        PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE
+        <a href="#page97">97</a></p>
+
+        <p>AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR <a href="#page99">99</a></p>
+
+        <p>"I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+        DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S"
+        <a href="#page100">100</a></p>
+
+        <p>MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE
+        PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+        BLACKGUARD" <a href="#page101">101</a></p>
+
+        <p>MEETING IN DÃœSSELDORF <a href="#page103">103</a></p>
+
+        <p>SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN
+        <a href="#page106">106</a></p>
+
+        <p>PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA <a href="#page115">115</a></p>
+
+        <p>"ON THEIR HONEYMOON" <a href="#page116">116</a></p>
+
+        <p><i>Also Illustration on pages</i>
+        <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page88">88</a>,
+        <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>,
+        <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>,
+        <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>,
+        <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>,
+        <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page135">135</a>,
+        <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a>.</p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page17"
+       id="page17"></a>{17}</span> 
+
+    <h2>I.</h2>
+
+    <h2>"TUMBLINGS"</h2>
+
+    <h3><i>WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS.</i></h3>
+
+    <p>"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the
+    class-rooms of the famous Antwerp Academy.</p>
+
+    <p>I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in
+    the storm and stress period of one's artistic development.</p>
+
+    <p>It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris;
+    it was there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think
+    I may say, very successfully, the essentially French art of
+    chaffing, known by the name of "La blague parisienne," and I
+    now was able to give my less lively Flemish friends and
+    fellow-students the full benefit of my experience. Many
+    pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when I heard one
+    day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page18"
+       id="page18"></a>{18}</span> atelier Gleyre, I was not a
+       little impatient to make his acquaintance.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/17.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/17.png"
+             alt="THE ATELIER GLEYRE." /></a>THE ATELIER GLEYRE.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking
+    it for granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in
+    French; we were soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and
+    answering questions about the comrades in Paris, and sorting
+    the threads that associated us both with the same place. "Did
+    you know 'un nommé Pointer'?" he asked, exquisitely
+    Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally translated
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page19"
+       id="page19"></a>{19}</span> this into equally exquisite
+       English, my version naturally being: "A man called
+       Poynter."</p>
+
+    <p>Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few
+    words in his and my native tongue. "What the D. are
+    you&mdash;English?" broke in du Maurier. "And what the D. are
+    you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D. stood for Dickens or for
+    the other one; probably it was the latter. At any rate, whether
+    more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and there made
+    friends on a sound international basis.</p>
+
+    <p>It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier
+    took me in at a glance&mdash;the eager, hungry glance of the
+    caricaturist. He seemed struck with my appearance, as well he
+    might be. I wore a workman's blouse that had gradually taken
+    its colour from its surroundings. To protect myself from the
+    indiscretions of my comrades I had painted various warnings on
+    my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware," "It is
+    forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black
+    hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily
+    conceived band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's
+    hand could devise, and I was doubtless colouring some
+    meerschaum of eccentric design. My
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page20"
+       id="page20"></a>{20}</span> fellow-student, the now famous
+       Matthew Maris, immortalised that blouse and that piece of
+       crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here
+       reproduced.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/19.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/19.png"
+             alt="MY BLOUSE." /></a>MY BLOUSE.<br />
+         (<i>From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris.</i>)
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page21"
+       id="page21"></a>{21}</span> 
+
+    <p>It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to
+    think that I should have been the tool selected by Providence
+    to sharpen du Maurier's pencil; there must have been something
+    in my "Verfluchte Physiognomie," as a very handsome young
+    German, whom I used to chaff unmercifully, called it, to reveal
+    to du Maurier hidden possibilities and to awaken in him those
+    dormant capacities which had betrayed themselves in the eager
+    glance above named.</p>
+
+    <p>This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as
+    regards that date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters
+    before me, but they offer me no assistance; there is but one
+    dated, and that one merely headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent."
+    Well, in 1857, then, let us take it, the Antwerp Academy was
+    under the direction of De Keyser, that most urbane of men and
+    painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American and English
+    lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the
+    Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who
+    rapidly made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys,
+    Heyermans, and the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies
+    after the Masters at the Antwerp Gallery are well known to
+    every <span class="pagenum"><a name="page22"
+       id="page22"></a>{22}</span> tourist. The teaching was of a
+       sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies
+       of the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the
+       traditions of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might
+       have studied form and learnt to fill it with colour, but
+       here you would be taught to manipulate colour, and to limit
+       it by form. A peculiar kind of artistic kicks and cuffs were
+       administered to the student by Van Lerius as he went his
+       rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you have painted
+       in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion&mdash;"so
+       delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up
+       my palette knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah,
+       you see, <i>savez vous</i>, you can't do it again; you got
+       it by fluke, some stray tints off your palette, <i>savez
+       vous</i>," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept
+       over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints
+       to have covered a dozen foreheads.</p>
+
+    <p>The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was
+    amusing to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and
+    at the shortest notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble
+    toes would screw and unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or
+    handle the brush as steadily
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page23"
+       id="page23"></a>{23}</span> as the best and deftest of
+       fingers could have done. Very much unlike any of us, he was
+       most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his paint box,
+       as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys,
+       Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose
+       thread of life was soon to be cut short, were painting
+       splendid studies, some of which I was fortunate enough to
+       rescue from destruction and have happily preserved.</p>
+
+    <p>Quite worthy to be placed next to these are
+    Van-der-something's studies. That (or something like that) was
+    the name of a wiry, active little man who in those days painted
+    in a garret; there everything was disarranged chaotically,
+    mostly on the floor, for there was no furniture that I can
+    recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine old
+    looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked
+    contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not
+    badly appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an
+    exuberance of charms and graces characteristic of a Rubens
+    model.</p>
+
+    <p>A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young
+    German, brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He
+    had always held <span class="pagenum"><a name="page24"
+       id="page24"></a>{24}</span> most rigid principles on
+       questions of morality, but unfortunately they failed one day
+       in their application, owing to the less settled views
+       entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects.
+       She certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but
+       on the other she so audaciously appropriated those of his
+       goods and chattels that could be turned into money, that the
+       police had to intervene, and she eventually found herself
+       before a judge and jury. There, however, she managed so well
+       to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to this day,
+       I believe was quite innocent, that&mdash;"cherchez la
+       femme"&mdash;she got off, and he was sentenced to a term of
+       imprisonment.</p>
+
+    <p>Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for
+    forging their signatures, and he had been found guilty and
+    condemned to severe punishment, it would have served him right.
+    He was a perfect gem of a forger. He picked up a stock of those
+    dirty old pictures painted on worm-eaten panels that used to
+    abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp. On these he would paint
+    what might be called replicas with variations, cribbing left
+    and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered all
+    about the floor. He would
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page25"
+       id="page25"></a>{25}</span> scrape and scumble, brighten and
+       deaden with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and
+       manipulate till his picture, after a given time spent in a
+       damp cellar, would emerge as a genuine old master. I once
+       asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular customer of his,
+       at what price he sold one of those productions. "I really
+       can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I
+       buy for exportation to England and America." If any of my
+       friends here or over there possess some work of
+       Van-der-something's, I sincerely congratulate them, for the
+       little man was a genius in his way.</p>
+
+    <p>Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor
+    fellow, he spent but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What
+    became of his Circe I never sought to know. It was a clear case
+    of "Ne cherchez pas la femme!"</p>
+
+    <p>The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean
+    Heyermans (detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved
+    himself, for he at once took me in hand, helped me to find home
+    and hearth, and generally gave me the correct tip, so valuable
+    to the stranger. He lost no time in teaching me some of those
+    full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from the first enabled me
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page26"
+       id="page26"></a>{26}</span> to emphasise my meaning when I
+       wished to express it in unmistakable language.</p>
+
+    <p>He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English,
+    French, and German fluently, in addition to his native
+    language, Dutch; so he soon chummed with du Maurier and me in
+    several languages, and became one of our set. He was always
+    ready to follow us in our digressions from the conventional
+    course, and we felt that many of our best international jokes
+    would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and
+    appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us,
+    inviting us to his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply
+    knives and forks, and to empty glasses of various dimensions.
+    That gentleman's corpulence had reached a degree which clearly
+    showed that he must have "lost sight of his knees" some years
+    back, but he was none the less strong and active. There were
+    two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other
+    sympathetically musical.</p>
+
+    <p>How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know,
+    but he figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings.</p>
+
+    <p>"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come
+    on Sunday, may the vengeance of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page27"
+       id="page27"></a>{27}</span> the gods overtake him! Tell him
+       so. I'll meet him at the train." And then he sketches the
+       meeting and greeting of the two, and the railway guard
+       starting his train with the old-fashioned horn-signal on the
+       G.E.C. then in use.</p>
+
+    <p>My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular
+    exhibitor in Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a
+    remarkable taste and talent for teaching.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/26.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/26.png"
+             alt="PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES." />
+        </a>PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert
+    Browning one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking
+    about his son's talents and prospects. (This was a few years
+    after my final return to England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I
+    said, "to Heyermans; he is the best man I know of to start
+    him."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page28"
+       id="page28"></a>{28}</span> 
+
+    <p>Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a
+    picture after little more than a twelve-month that at once
+    found an eager purchaser. The poet took great pride in his
+    son's success, and lost no opportunity of speaking in the most
+    grateful and appreciative terms of the teacher. Millais and
+    Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans' reputation was
+    established. A few years ago he migrated to London, where he
+    continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the
+    Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a
+    rising generation.</p>
+
+    <p>Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was
+    Alma Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time,
+    but had previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in
+    the room adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively
+    interested in the study of costume and history. The incident
+    that led to his leaving the academy rather abruptly is
+    characteristic. An uncle of his having given him a commission
+    for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for authorisation to
+    make the necessary break in his studies. The Director accorded
+    him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling
+    the circumstance, "I couldn't
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page29"
+       id="page29"></a>{29}</span> paint a picture in three weeks
+       then, and I cannot now."</p>
+
+    <p>I little thought that from his studies of costume and
+    history, the comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and
+    uninterrupted series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past
+    and presenting it with the erudition of the Student and the
+    genius of the Artist. Nor did anything foreshadow that my
+    genial Dutch friend, to whom the English language was a dead
+    letter, was destined in a not too distant Future to become a
+    shining light of England's Royal Academy.</p>
+
+    <p>Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and
+    made a vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly
+    recollect a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and
+    a boy&mdash;a pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's
+    album&mdash;that showed talent enough and to spare, but his
+    artistic aspirations were soon to meet with a serious check.
+    His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and before long put a
+    stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was not to become
+    a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know, he was
+    to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest
+    of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of
+    ink, when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or
+    graceful shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns
+    to prompt and guide that
+    pen.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page30"
+       id="page30"></a>{30}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/29.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/29.png"
+             alt="&lt;i&gt;From du Maurier's painting.&lt;/i&gt;" />
+             </a><i>From du Maurier's painting.</i>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page31"
+       id="page31"></a>{31}</span> 
+
+    <p>In those days we called all that caricaturing, and
+    caricature he certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the
+    first he imagined he saw a marked contrast between us. His nose
+    was supposed to be turned up, and mine down, whereas really
+    neither his nor mine much deviated from the ordinary run of
+    noses; my lower lip certainly does project, but his does not
+    particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary contrast
+    inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance, and
+    started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all
+    conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles
+    and I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had
+    we been artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the
+    fair sex, or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility,
+    if we were horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the
+    essence of our characteristics, whilst appearing only to
+    delineate our human and equine possibilities. Poor F.,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32"
+       id="page32"></a>{32}</span> one of our German friends, fares
+       badly, a donkey's head portraying him "s'il était
+       cheval."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/31-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/31-1.png"
+             alt="MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE." />
+             </a>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE.
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/31-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/31-2.png"
+             alt="SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX." /></a>SI NOUS AVIONS
+             ÉTÉ BEAUX.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du
+    Maurier left Antwerp for Malines,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33"
+       id="page33"></a>{33}</span> to place himself under the care
+       of an eminent oculist who resided within easy reach of that
+       city. That blessed blister&mdash;"ce sacré vésicatoire," as
+       he calls it, is one of the doctor's remedies.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:90%;">
+        <a href="images/32-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/32-1.png"
+             alt="MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES." />
+        </a>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES.
+    </div>
+
+    <table summary="illustrations"
+           align="center">
+        <tr>
+            <td><a href="images/32-2.png"><img width="100%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/32-2.png"
+                 alt="SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX." /></a></td>
+
+            <td><a href="images/32-3.png"><img width="85%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/32-3.png"
+                 alt="F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL." /></a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td align="center"><small>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ
+            CHEVAUX.</small></td>
+
+            <td align="center"><small>F. S'IL ETAIT
+            CHEVAL.</small></td>
+        </tr>
+    </table><span class="pagenum"><a name="page34"
+       id="page34"></a>{34}</span> 
+
+    <p>The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister
+    of Mercy.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:65%;">
+        <a href="images/33.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/33.png"
+             alt="SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES." /></a>SI NOUS
+             AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is
+    now, but one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an
+    hour, a circumstance which I frequently turned to account. Du
+    Maurier's mother had come to live with him, his sister joining
+    them for a short time, and the home in quiet old Malines soon
+    became a sort <span class="pagenum"><a name="page35"
+       id="page35"></a>{35}</span> of haven of rest. I spent many a
+       happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to
+       say that the piano, requisitioned by me for some special
+       purposes of musical caricature, detracted somewhat from the
+       restfulness of the haven. However that may have been, such
+       intrusion was never resented; my Swedish prima donna, or my
+       qualifications as a basso profondo, or a brass-bandsman,
+       were always treated with the greatest indulgence by the
+       ladies, and my high soprano flourished and
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page36"
+       id="page36"></a>{36}</span> positively reached unknown
+       altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause.
+       (For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:80%;">
+        <a href="images/34-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/34-1.png"
+             alt="'CE SACRÉ VESICATOIRE.'" /></a>"CE SACRÉ
+             VESICATOIRE."
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figright"
+         style="width:40%;">
+        <a href="images/34-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/34-2.png"
+             alt="ISABEL DU MAURIER." /></a>ISABEL DU MAURIER.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the
+    English song, or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with
+    his sympathetic tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he
+    seemed to be able to express more than many who had had the
+    advantage of a musical training. A few old letters of his
+    remind me that we were audacious enough to write verses and
+    music, he doing the former, I the latter.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes.
+    "Take strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,'
+    and compose some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with
+    which Rag's ideal flame has inspired Rag&mdash;<i>surtout</i>,
+    let it be as good as possible, with accompaniment <i>à
+    l'avenant</i>. An alteration in the music of each stanza would
+    render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
+    compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I
+    must tell later on.) <span class="pagenum"><a name="page37"
+       id="page37"></a>{37}</span> Then follow the
+       words:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <center>
+        CHANSON.
+    </center>
+
+    <center>
+        <i>D'apres un barde Britannique</i>.<a id="footnotetag1"
+                name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
+    </center>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Les sources vont à la rivière</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Et la rivière à l'océan;</p>
+
+            <p>Les monts embrassent la lumière,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Le vent du ciel se mêle au vent;</p>
+
+            <p>Contre le flot, le flot se presse;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Rien ne vit seul&mdash;tout semble,
+            ici,</p>
+
+            <p>Se fondre en la commune ivresse....</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi?</p>
+
+            <p>Vois le soleil étreint la terre,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Qui rougit d'aise à son
+            coucher&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>La lune étreint les flots, qu'éclaire</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Son rayon doux comme un baiser;</p>
+
+            <p>Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas</p>
+
+            <p>Que valent toutes ces caresses</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Si tu ne me caresses
+            pas?<a id="footnotetag2"
+               name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a></p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le
+    compositeur de face" head the page.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:70%;">
+        <a href="images/36.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/36.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and
+    writes:</p>
+
+    <p>"DEAR BOBTAIL,&mdash;I send you the Serenade
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page38"
+       id="page38"></a>{38}</span> composed 'tant bien que mal'
+       last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between
+       the tea and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as
+       dramatic as you wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and
+       as Mahomet can't write words to the mountain's music, the
+       mountain must try and adapt its music to the verses of
+       Mahomet.</p>
+
+    <center>
+        SÉRÉNADE APRÈS LA SIESTE.
+    </center>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta
+            paupière,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Chasse les rêves d'or de ton léger
+            sommeil&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Ils sont là, nos amis; cêde a notre prière</p>
+
+            <p>Le trône préparé n'attend que ton réveil;</p>
+
+            <p>Le soleil a cessé de régner sur la terre,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Viens régner sur la fête et sois notre
+            soleil.</p>
+
+            <p>Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux</p>
+
+            <p>Au jardin des amours, viens ô viens avec nous.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Au jardin des amours ta place est réservée,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en
+            fleurs.</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Viens réveiller en nous de nouvelles
+            ardeurs&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosée&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit à la vallée,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire à
+            nos coeurs!</p>
+
+            <p>Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,</p>
+
+            <p>Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux
+            regards pour moi!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Déjà j'entends les jeux de la foule en
+            émoi</p>
+
+            <p>Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux délire!</p>
+
+            <p>Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra
+            dire:</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page39"
+               id="page39"></a>{39}</span> 
+
+            <p class="i2">'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a
+            chanté sans toi!'</p>
+
+            <p>Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,</p>
+
+            <p>Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens ô viens avec
+            nous!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance,
+    the first tenor says he hears the folks doing the light
+    fantastic toe. One might suppose they danced in
+    sabots&mdash;mere poetic license, and besides, a first tenor
+    ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire
+    yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have
+    been, I do not remember, but I find this is what he writes on
+    the subject&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"CARISSIMO,&mdash;In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive
+    powers to alter the last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce
+    baiser-la.' The lines I have underlined mean that I don't quite
+    approve the part of the music that comes just there, as in the
+    musical phrase you have set to it I fancy there is a want of
+    tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the more I hums it the
+    more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your
+    accompaniment."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:85%;">
+        <a href="images/39.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/39.png"
+             alt="Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather
+    indefinite quantities, subject to
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page40"
+       id="page40"></a>{40}</span> the mood of the moment.
+       "Moscheles or Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts
+       me at the piano, perhaps evolving some such accompaniment
+       from the depths of "untrained inner consciousness." "Eureka"
+       he might have put under that other sketch, where his own
+       hands have at last found some long-sought harmony or chord
+       on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat later
+       period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am
+       at the piano, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page42"
+       id="page42"></a>{42}</span> my eyes raised to the "She" in
+       papillottes, who floats as a vision in the clouds, issuing
+       from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my feet is stretched
+       the meditative form of my friend, and under them is crushed
+       some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/41.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/41.png"
+             alt="'INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE.'" /></a>"INSPIRATION
+             PAPILLOTIQUE."
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page43"
+       id="page43"></a>{43}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:70%;">
+        <a href="images/42.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/42.png"
+             alt="DU MAURIER IMPROVISING." /></a>DU MAURIER
+             IMPROVISING.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition
+    that most people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes"
+    that can inspire, I may permit myself to say something about
+    the attractive young lady who was able to lead us by easy
+    stages from the vague "inspiration papillotique"
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page44"
+       id="page44"></a>{44}</span> to an admiration which might be
+       said to culminate in flirtation. I don't remember either of
+       us ever trying to cut the other out, as the accompanying
+       sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail fight a duel
+       for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols.
+       Shows the way in which Rag tries to <i>désillusioñer</i>
+       Carry on Bobtail, and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto
+       on Rag <span class="pagenum"><a name="page45"
+       id="page45"></a>{45}</span> Carry being on this side of the
+       rivals is not represented."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/43.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/43.png"
+             alt="HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG." />
+        </a>HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+        BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the
+    enjoyment of her good graces, he having the pull of me the
+    greater part of the week, and only suspending operations in my
+    favour when I came to Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit.
+    These occasions were productive of a great number of drawings
+    and sketches, illustrating our little adventures, and all
+    plainly showing that the incidents recorded occurred to us at
+    that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions and buoyant
+    spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of the
+    rose colour than many a rose of a later day.</p>
+
+    <p>Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at
+    best up to the date of last century, beating the record for
+    dry-as-dustiness and growing dear little blades of grass
+    between its cobble stones. It boasts of a great many churches
+    and of a very great many more priests. (<i>Vide</i>: The
+    ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.) In
+    addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of
+    paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and
+    elsewhere, there were pretty girls about,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page46"
+       id="page46"></a>{46}</span> and I need not say that, as both
+       of us were studying art and devoting our best energies to
+       the cult of the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take
+       special notice of these pretty girls wherever we came across
+       them. It is probably the conscientious performance of his
+       duty in that direction which enabled du Maurier to evolve
+       those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of female beauty
+       we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been becoming
+       in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to
+       show less ardour in the pursuit of my studies.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/45.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/45.png"
+             alt="THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT." />
+        </a>THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+        HAT.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black
+    and white sketches of Miss
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page47"
+       id="page47"></a>{47}</span> Carry, it was reserved for me to
+       paint her portrait in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not
+       Carry; that appellation we had most unceremoniously and
+       unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else about her we
+       invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of poetry.
+       And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well
+       worthy of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being
+       charmed, of giving and taking, of free and easiness, coupled
+       with ladylike reserve. She seemed to be born with the
+       intuitive knowledge that there was only one life worth
+       living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time
+       well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In
+       fact, to give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul
+       was steeped in the very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to
+       Carry's soul, it may not be inappropriate to say something
+       also about her looks; but to describe good looks is, as we
+       all know, deliberately to court failure; far better request
+       every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he will
+       be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man
+       will be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop
+       of brown curly hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a
+       figure of peculiar
+       elasticity.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page48"
+       id="page48"></a>{48}</span> 
+
+    <p>Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who
+    had held a good position at one of the principal churches of
+    Malines. When he died he left but a small inheritance to his
+    widow; with what she could realise, she purchased the goodwill
+    of a small tobacconist's store and set up in business. Neither
+    the mother nor the daughter had much previous knowledge of the
+    concern they had started, and they were consequently not very
+    discriminating in the selection of their brands; but what was
+    lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by Mrs. L.'s
+    obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had been
+    steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them
+    about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a
+    time the little business was as flourishing as anything could
+    well be in Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically
+    conservative, and hereditarily stationary a city could hardly
+    be expected to encourage a new venture of the kind. Still even
+    there there were some young men about town, a sort of "jeunesse
+    doré", not of 18-carat gold perhaps, but a "jeunesse" quite
+    equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around the fair
+    tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier
+    and I supplied the rest, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page49"
+       id="page49"></a>{49}</span> and watched over her with
+       chivalrous, if not quite disinterested devotion. We differed
+       in every respect from the type of the young man of the
+       period above mentioned; so naturally we were bright stars in
+       Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior beings,
+       and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause;
+       du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I
+       could mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully!
+       We neither of us encourage hero-worship now, but then we
+       were "bons princes," and graciously accepted Carry's homage
+       as due to our superior merits.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/48.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/48.png"
+             alt="'BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE!'" />
+        </a>"BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+        TOBACCONISTE!"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous
+    devotion of ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds,
+    richly attired, as true <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50"
+       id="page50"></a>{50}</span> knights and good should be when
+       they go to pay homage to beauty.</p>
+
+    <p>"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair
+    tobacconiste!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/49.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/49.png"
+             alt="'SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!'" />
+             </a>"SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing
+    fair."</p>
+
+    <p>The second drawing shows our "Salut à la Gente et accorte
+    pucelle!" and the winning smile with which Carry would receive
+    us.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page51"
+       id="page51"></a>{51}</span> 
+
+    <p>Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism,
+    formed so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation
+    between du Maurier and myself, that it takes a very prominent
+    place in my recollections.</p>
+
+    <p>In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most
+    interesting séances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded
+    to investigate the mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I
+    have not touched the fluid for some thirty years; I swore off
+    because it was taking too much out of me; but I look back with
+    pleasure on my earlier experiments, successes I may say, for I
+    was fortunate enough to come across several exceptional
+    subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of
+    these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling
+    questions concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence.
+    Virginie was a "femme de ménage" of the true Parisian type, a
+    devoted elderly creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman
+    and a housekeeper. I was not yet eighteen when I first went to
+    Paris, to study under my cousin, the eminent painter, Henri
+    Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie installed as the
+    presiding genius of the establishment, using in turn broom or
+    tub, needle, grill or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page52"
+       id="page52"></a>{52}</span> frying-pan as the occasion might
+       require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by
+       making a truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My début
+       in Paris was that of the somewhat bewildered foreigner,
+       speaking but very indifferent French, and she had from the
+       first done what she could to make me feel at home in the
+       strange city, treating me with truly motherly care and
+       devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown
+       by a passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in
+       Leipsic, where I had gone on a visit to my parents. After
+       expressing her anxiety and her regret at not being there to
+       nurse me, she emphatically says:&mdash;"Je rends Madame,
+       votre mère, responsable de votre santé" (I make Madame, your
+       mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little
+       to lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence
+       to one of unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few
+       passes shaping her course, I willed her across the boundary
+       line that separates us from the unknown, a line which,
+       thanks to science, is daily being extended. Madame veuve
+       Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the
+       phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were
+       such as to surprise and convert many a
+       scoffer.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page53"
+       id="page53"></a>{53}</span> 
+
+    <p>At the séances, to which I invited my friends and a few
+    scientific outsiders, I always courted the fullest
+    investigation, taking it as the first duty of the mesmerist to
+    show cause why he should not be put down as a charlatan. So we
+    had tests and counter-tests, evidence and counter-evidence;
+    there were doctors to feel the pulse and to scrutinise the
+    rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific ifs and
+    buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
+    progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that
+    wheel in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the
+    good faith of subject and mesmerist could be conclusively
+    proved.</p>
+
+    <p>One of these séances led to a rather amusing incident. One
+    night I was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my
+    bell, and when, after some parleying, I opened the door, I
+    found myself confronted by two individuals. One I recognised as
+    an "inquirer" who had been brought to my rooms some time
+    previously; the other was a lad I had not seen before. The
+    inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully watched my <i>modus
+    operandi</i> on the occasion of his visit, had next tried
+    experiments of his own. In this
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page54"
+       id="page54"></a>{54}</span> instance he had succeeded in
+       mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him
+       to his normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap
+       fastened round his waist, he led him through the streets of
+       Paris to my rooms. There we both tried our powers upon him,
+       the result being very unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling
+       himself freed from one operator and not subjected by the
+       other, refused allegiance to either, and, being of a
+       pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
+       out at both of us. It was not without considerable
+       difficulty that I re-mesmerised him completely, and then,
+       having previously prepared his mind to account naturally for
+       his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in awakening him, and
+       all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful, the youth
+       went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
+       and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own
+       account.</p>
+
+    <p>I would say more of my séances and all the recollections
+    they evoke, were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and
+    to Malines. Once on the experiences of those days, I have much
+    to relate&mdash;pros and cons, if you please, for that subtle
+    magnetic fluid, which, without physical
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page55"
+       id="page55"></a>{55}</span> contact, one human being can
+       transmit to another, is a ticklish one to handle. I cannot
+       pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to the
+       Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allongé, the
+       well-known French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at
+       the Ecole des Beaux Arts. A chance contact of our knees as
+       we sat closely packed with some sixty other students put me
+       on the track of a new subject, perhaps the most interesting
+       one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But of him
+       another time.</p>
+
+    <p>Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the
+    reader&mdash;that is, if natural slumber has not ere this put
+    him beyond my control&mdash;across the frontier, into the back
+    parlour of Mrs. L.'s tobacco store. There I am operating on a
+    boy&mdash;such a stupid little Flemish boy that no amount of
+    fluid could ever make him clever. How I came to treat him to
+    passes I don't remember; probably I used him as an
+    object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave
+    him a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and
+    burnt his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be
+    eaten presently, thereby making him howl and grin
+    alternately.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page56"
+       id="page56"></a>{56}</span> 
+
+    <p>In the middle of our séance Carry is called away by a
+    customer, one of the swells of Malines much addicted to a
+    poetical expression of his admiration for the fair sex in
+    general and for Carry in particular. Greatly to our
+    edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by leading
+    him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a
+    fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the
+    accompanying sketch.</p>
+
+    <p>But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even
+    scientific experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days.
+    When one stands on the threshold of a world of mysteries one
+    cannot but long to bridge over the chasm that separates one
+    from the gods, the fairies, or the fiends. To be sure, we
+    should have been glad if we could have got "light, more light"
+    thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we tried to find our
+    way as best we could in the mist. We loved that
+    never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear
+    Bohemian sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made
+    frequent inroads into the boundless land where unknown forces
+    pick up our poor dear little conception of the Impossible,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57"
+       id="page57"></a>{57}</span> and use it as the starting-point
+       of never-to-be-exhausted possibilities.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/56.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/56.png"
+             alt="A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR." />
+             </a>A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page59"
+       id="page59"></a>{59}</span> 
+
+    <p>Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our
+    outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one
+    or the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du
+    Maurier was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to
+    develop into Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in
+    more than one of his letters and sketches the future delineator
+    of those characters embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on
+    one occasion he depicts himself, with fixed gaze and hair
+    erect, sitting bolt upright on my hospitable sofa, thrilled and
+    overawed by the midnight presence of the uncanny, which I had
+    evoked for his benefit.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow
+    to Antwerp and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and
+    comfortable&mdash;But why, when the bleak November wind sobs
+    against the lattice and disturbs the dead ashes in the grate,
+    when everything is damned queer and dark, and that sort of
+    thing, you know&mdash;why should you make nervous fellows'
+    flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page60"
+       id="page60"></a>{60}</span> to see live fellows before
+       dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad! it's
+       horrid!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/59.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/59.png"
+             alt="THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY." /></a>THE
+             MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive
+    gathering. We always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded
+    better, but in reality there was only one room with two small
+    alcoves. Studies and sketches covered the walls or littered the
+    floor, and the genial figure of a skeleton, in very perfect
+    condition, stood in the corner by the piano. At first it came
+    with a view to instructing
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page61"
+       id="page61"></a>{61}</span> me in the Science of Anatomy,
+       but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony
+       professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus
+       natural that on those occasions when guests had been
+       convened to my rooms, he would take a leading part,
+       generally appearing gracefully draped and appropriately
+       illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background to the
+       gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation,
+       and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The
+       sounds thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow
+       limits of home, but spread far beyond it, a fact which the
+       neighbours, I am sure, would have been at any time ready
+       most emphatically to attest.</p>
+
+    <p>In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily
+    answerable for the magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound
+    to add that my example was followed and even improved upon by
+    the more lung-gifted of my companions. Amongst the milder forms
+    of entertainment was my impersonation of Rachel. That grand
+    actress I had often seen in Paris, and had, more than once,
+    shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the Tyrant, pouring
+    forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the classical
+    language of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62"
+       id="page62"></a>{62}</span> Racine and Corneille. With those
+       accents still ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and
+       there, when surrounded by sympathetic friends, the spirit
+       would sometimes move me, and I would feel&mdash;excuse the
+       conceit of youth&mdash;as if I too could have been a great
+       female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In
+       such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and
+       use the blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the
+       classical folds of the bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant,
+       hissing fearful hexameters of scorn and vituperation into
+       his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so
+       magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house
+       which was not of the most solid construction.</p>
+
+    <p>Another time the cushion yonder would be my child&mdash;the
+    orthodox long-lost one&mdash;"It is!&mdash;It is not!&mdash;It
+    is!&mdash;Let me clasp it to my other cushion!" "Toi mon fils
+    chéri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes
+    loisirs!"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page64"
+       id="page64"></a>{64}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/63.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/63.png"
+             alt="FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY." />
+             </a>FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued
+    from oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively
+    doings on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's
+    mamma," he says, "had worked a very
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page65"
+       id="page65"></a>{65}</span> pretty cap for Felix, and Felix
+       had it on the morning after his birthday, and Felix found
+       that though the cap was very pretty, it made him look very
+       seedy."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/64.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/64.png"
+             alt="'RACHEL'" /></a>"RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE
+             BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page67"
+       id="page67"></a>{67}</span> 
+
+    <p>In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the
+    friends assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had
+    come together in the evening, much in the same spirit that had
+    led them under my windows in the morning, with a brass band and
+    an enormous bouquet of cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers.
+    There, on the left, is Van Lerius with his hands in his
+    pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans, Bource, and
+    all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud
+    bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good
+    fellows! It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and
+    contemplate du Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded
+    capacity of enjoyment. I can see him taking points that fell
+    flat with the other fellows. Quite a pleasure, too, to think of
+    Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald head, of the tall and
+    the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face.</p>
+
+    <p>Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed,
+    and the whirligig of time has
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page68"
+       id="page68"></a>{68}</span> been revolving with unfailing
+       regularity, dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated,
+       some to stand, some to fall. What has become of the threads
+       of friendship, picked up at the studio or the café, perhaps
+       whilst puzzling over the chess-board, or when harmonising in
+       four-part song? Golden threads; some destined to be spun out
+       and to become solidly intertwined; others to be hopelessly
+       entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable
+       Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon
+       companions of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and
+       everywhere&mdash;perhaps nowhere! Some I see trotting
+       briskly along the high-road of life, others dragging wearily
+       through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting under
+       a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of
+       dates, fixed just above their
+       heads.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page69"
+       id="page69"></a>{69}</span> 
+    <hr />
+
+    <h2>II.</h2>
+
+    <p>I well remember a certain "barrière" that protected the
+    level crossing just outside the Malines Station. It was but an
+    ordinary piece of hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier
+    and I, can never forget it; for, as we stood by its side we
+    vowed that come what might, we would never travel along that
+    line and past the old gate without recalling that summer
+    evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days.</p>
+
+    <p>It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our
+    never-to-be-forgotten aliases&mdash;Rag and Bobtail. We had
+    chanced upon a chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that
+    old barrière, and some fortuitous circumstance having revealed
+    the fact that his initials were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him
+    Tag. Out of that very naturally grew the further development:
+    Rag, Tag, and
+    Bobtail.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page70"
+       id="page70"></a>{70}</span> 
+
+    <p>T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably
+    taller than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to
+    secure him the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at
+    the shrine of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the
+    man of six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman
+    of commanding presence, his appreciation of size culminating in
+    the love of "Chang," that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt
+    to admire, as we followed his career through the volumes of the
+    immortal Weekly, presided over by Toby and his master.</p>
+
+    <p>I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he
+    took it much or often, but he gave one the impression that
+    whatever others might do when amongst the benighted foreigner,
+    he, for one, would not let a good old English custom drop into
+    disuse. Looking at Tag one intuitively felt that his father
+    before him had taken his moderate glass of W. and W., and that,
+    if he married and had sons, they would do likewise. I do not
+    think that he was particularly fond of art or artists, unless
+    inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was engaged, or, at
+    least, he was generally just about to be
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page71"
+       id="page71"></a>{71}</span> engaged, in some business, and
+       whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence
+       operations, he would settle down to an expectant present.
+       The golden opportunity he was looking for was plainly
+       visible on his horizon, but it had a way of remaining
+       stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's nature to move
+       unless under great pressure, the two never met.</p>
+
+    <p>In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a
+    good deal with us when we were out and about, bent on storming
+    the world, or climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the
+    looking on, the parts thus being distributed to our mutual
+    satisfaction. He was always pleasantly acquiescent, and had the
+    rare gift of making himself useless agreeably; a common bond of
+    interest we had in the Colorado claro and oscuro, whether the
+    fair or dark, applied to the friendly weed or the still more
+    friendly fair sex.</p>
+
+    <p>He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote
+    to us from Paris, when he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"Since my arrival here my notes of what I have to do
+        represent what I have not done, and if it be true that the
+        infernal regions are paved
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page72"
+           id="page72"></a>{72}</span> with good intentions, I
+           shall be received on my arrival by a deputation of souls
+           to thank me for my contribution to the pavement."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <table summary="illustrations"
+           align="center">
+        <tr>
+            <td><a href="images/71-1.png"><img width="100%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/71-1.png"
+                 alt="RAG." /></a></td>
+
+            <td><a href="images/71-2.png"><img width="100%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/71-2.png"
+                 alt="BOBTAIL." /></a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td align="center"><small>RAG.</small></td>
+
+            <td align="center"><small>BOBTAIL.</small></td>
+        </tr>
+    </table>
+
+    <p>There are sketches in which Tag's eloquence is confined to
+    one exclamation, "Matilda!" But whether that name was coupled
+    with present felicity or future hopes I do not recollect. But
+    du Maurier's lines describe him and our chumship
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73"
+       id="page73"></a>{73}</span> much better than any words of
+       mine could do. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <center>
+        "To BOBTAIL.
+    </center>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Oh, fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint</p>
+
+            <p>All lazy beggars like me&mdash;"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"In the sunshine of April, the April of life,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">You and I and our Tag make three;</p>
+
+            <p>And few will deny that for such close chums</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">A queer set of fellows are we.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>For I walk slowly, and you walk fast,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And Tag lies down (not to fall);</p>
+
+            <p><i>You</i> think of the Present, <i>I</i> think of
+            the Past,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And Tag thinks of nothing at all.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Yet who shall be lucky, and who shall be rich?</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Whether both, neither, one, or all
+            three;</p>
+
+            <p>Is a mystery which, Dame Fortune, the witch,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Tells neither Tag, Bobtail, or me!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">(RAG)."</p>
+
+    <p>The portraits of Rag and Bobtail head the page. A space was
+    left for Tag's, but never filled.</p>
+
+    <p><i>Apropos</i> of plans and prospects on Tag's distant
+    horizon, I find a passage in one of his letters, dated
+    November, 1857, which is well worth recording. I quote it to
+    give myself and my fellow Europeans an opportunity of rejoicing
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74"
+       id="page74"></a>{74}</span> that Tag's scheme belonged to
+       those that were not to be realised. It runs thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"As du Maurier's eye, though better, will, most
+        probably, not allow him to resume his profession as a
+        painter, we have determined to try our fortune together in
+        Australia, and mean to start from here early in February.
+        He hopes to obtain employment by drawing sketches,
+        caricatures, &amp;c., for the Melbourne <i>Punch</i>, and
+        other illustrated papers. You know how eminently suited he
+        is for that kind of work, and we hear that an artist of
+        talent of that description is much wanted out there, and
+        would be sure to do exceedingly well. I, of course, do not
+        intend to start in that line, but hope to be able to
+        support myself for the first few years, after which I shall
+        establish myself in business on my own account, and I
+        trust, with luck, I may return home in the course of from
+        ten to fifteen years, if not with immense riches, at all
+        events with enough to enable me to pass the remainder of my
+        'old age' in peace and comfort."</p>
+    </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page76"
+       id="page76"></a>{76}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/75.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/75.png"
+             alt="'WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I WONDER.'" />
+        </a>"WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+        HANG MYSELF, I WONDER."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Did Tag ever go, I wonder? Did he come back, and has he
+    perhaps been enjoying his "old
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77"
+       id="page77"></a>{77}</span> age" somewhere over here for the
+       last thirty years?&mdash;I wish you would say what
+       <i>has</i> become of you, my dear Tag. I'm sure we should be
+       chums again, if you're anything like the dear old
+       stick-in-the-mud of former days! Don't you recollect that
+       sketch of Rag's? I had nearly forgotten to mention it, the
+       one with the three ropes of life. I am climbing ahead with
+       fiendish energy. Rag follows, steadily ascending, weighted
+       as he is with a treasure, a box marked "Mrs. Rag, with
+       care," and your noble form is squatting on the floor, a
+       glass of the best blend at your feet, and a cigar you are
+       enjoying from which rises the legend that makes you say,
+       "What the deuce am I to do with this confounded rope? Hang
+       myself, I wonder?" Nonsense, to be sure; but do come and
+       tell me what you <i>have</i> done with the rope, or say
+       where I can find you still squatting.</p>
+
+    <p>That music of a certain spontaneous kind, the music within
+    us which we were ever longing to bring to the surface, was a
+    bond of union between du Maurier and myself, I have already
+    mentioned; but that bond was to be greatly strengthened by the
+    music that great musicians on more than one occasion lavished
+    on us. First came Louis <span class="pagenum"><a name="page78"
+       id="page78"></a>{78}</span> Brassin, the pianist. He had
+       studied under Moscheles at the Conservatorio of Leipsic, the
+       city of Bach and Mendelssohn fame; and there, from the days
+       of his boyhood, he had belonged to the little circle of
+       intimates who frequently gathered around the master at his
+       house.</p>
+
+    <p>When, a few years later, he came to Belgium on a concert
+    tour, he and I found no difficulty in taking up the old
+    friendship contracted in my father's house, just where we had
+    left it. The boy had become the man, the student had developed
+    into the artist and thorough musician. He was the boonest of
+    boon companions, and his jokes were so broad that they often
+    reminded one, in their crudeness and their rudeness, of certain
+    passages in Mozart's early letters. To say that he spoke French
+    with a German accent à la Svengali would be putting it very
+    mildly; Teutonic gutturals would most unceremoniously invade
+    the sister language; d's and t's, b's and p's would ever change
+    places, as they are made to do in some parts of the Fatherland.
+    With all that, he rejoiced in a delightful fluency of speech,
+    conveying quaint and original thought. There was something
+    decidedly interesting about Brassin's looks, but his figure
+    gave one the impression of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page80"
+       id="page80"></a>{80}</span> having been very carelessly put
+       together; when he walked his head went back on his
+       shoulders, and his hat went back on his head; his long arms
+       dangled, pendulum-like, by his sides, while his lanky legs,
+       dragging along anyhow, were ever lagging behind one another.
+       But when he opened the piano and put hands and feet to keys
+       and pedal, he was not the same individual. He would turn on
+       nerve and muscle-power, and would hurl avalanches of music
+       and torrents of notes at his audience till he, in his turn,
+       was overwhelmed with thunders of applause. And those were
+       the days, we must remember, when but few men could play at a
+       greater rate than twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; when
+       grand pianos were not yet ironclad and armour-plated, or had
+       learnt proudly to display the maker's name on their
+       broadside when they went forth to do battle on the concert
+       field.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/79.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/79.png"
+             alt="COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS." />
+             </a>COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page81"
+       id="page81"></a>{81}</span> 
+
+    <p>Brassin used to draw inane caricatures of himself, which he
+    would present to us with a triumphant laugh of immoderate
+    calibre. I have preserved some of these, but decidedly prefer
+    du Maurier's rendering of our common friend. In the
+    accompanying drawing he shows him at the piano, entertaining us
+    on "A rainy day."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page82"
+       id="page82"></a>{82}</span> 
+
+    <p>"Ah! Felix, amico mio," he says, "may thy room be always as
+    jolly, thy coffee be ever so sweet, as on that happy morning!
+    May Brassin's fingers be ever as brilliant and inspired! May
+    Tag be ever as lazy, and with equal satisfaction to himself,
+    and may I never be blinder! Amen."</p>
+
+    <p>That sketch admirably pourtrays the lankiness and flabbiness
+    of Brassin's figure, contrasting as it did with the strength of
+    the wrist and the grip of the fingers. He was certainly a fine
+    subject for du Maurier, whom I always looked upon as a sort of
+    vivisector of music and musicians, of their methods and their
+    moods. A brilliant career awaited Louis Brassin, but it was to
+    be suddenly and unexpectedly cut off. He died some ten years
+    ago at the age of forty-four.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1858 my father came on a visit to Antwerp with my mother
+    and my youngest sister, Clara. Wherever my father took up his
+    abode, even temporarily, a grand piano would in the natural
+    course of events gravitate towards him, and a select circle of
+    art lovers would soon be grouped around it. Amongst the friends
+    in the Antwerp circle were&mdash;Van Lerius, Tadema, Baron
+    Leys, Heyermans, and Bource. My sister at that time was a
+    bright and happy creature, not long
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page83"
+       id="page83"></a>{83}</span> out of her teens, full of
+       hopes&mdash;alas! never to be realised, and of talents never
+       to be matured. The large dark eyes&mdash;they seemed the
+       gift of her godmother, the famous Malibran&mdash;reflected
+       the artist's soul, and a grand soprano voice spoke its
+       powerful language. Du Maurier and she were
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page84"
+       id="page84"></a>{84}</span> soon on a brother and sisterly
+       footing, and they ever remained so.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/82.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/82.png"
+             alt="CLARA MOSCHELES." /></a>CLARA MOSCHELES.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Of the pleasant evenings we of the circle spent together I
+    recall one in particular. My sister had been singing one song
+    after another; my father was engaged in an animated
+    conversation with Stefani, the pianist, on the relative merits
+    of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Du Maurier and I had been sitting
+    at the farther end of the room, talking of his eyes. At that
+    time one doctor held out hopes; another, a great authority, had
+    considered it his painful duty not to conceal the truth from
+    his patient, and had, with much unction and the necessary
+    complement of professional phraseology, prepared him for the
+    worst. The sight of one eye had gone, that of the other would
+    follow. Those were anxious days, both for him and for his
+    friends; but, whatever he felt, he could talk about his trouble
+    with perfect equanimity, and I often wondered how quietly he
+    took it, and how cheerfully he would tell me that he was
+    "fearfully depressed." That evening I had been putting the
+    chances of a speedy recovery before him, and making predictions
+    based, I am bound to admit, on nothing more substantial than my
+    ardent hopes. But du Maurier
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page85"
+       id="page85"></a>{85}</span> was too much of a philosopher to
+       be satisfied with such encouragement as I could give, and
+       said: "No, I had better face the enemy and be prepared for
+       the worst. If it comes, you see, my dear fellow, there is
+       Nature's law of compensation, and I firmly believe that one
+       cannot lose one faculty without being compensated by some
+       great gain elsewhere. I suppose one gets to see more inside
+       as things grow darker outside. If one can't paint, one must
+       do something else&mdash;write perhaps; that is, as long as
+       one can, and then, if the steam accumulates, and one wants a
+       safety valve to let it off, dictate." Happily, to this day
+       he writes, and need not have recourse to dictation.</p>
+
+    <p>When we joined our friends we found Van Lerius and Heyermans
+    had been pressed into the service, and were making sketches for
+    my sister's album. Du Maurier took up a pencil, and, with a few
+    characteristic touches, drew that sister's eyes. "Quand je les
+    vois," he wrote underneath, "j'oublie les miens. (Reflexion
+    d'un futur aveugle.) When I see them I forget my own.
+    (Reflections of a man going blind.)"</p>
+
+    <p>Soon the main business of the evening was
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page86"
+       id="page86"></a>{86}</span> resumed. Was it Beethoven's
+       sonata for piano and violin, or a mighty improvisation on
+       classical themes that came first? I do not recollect; but I
+       remember that du Maurier's rendering of Balfe's "When other
+       lips and other hearts," with my scratch accompaniment, was
+       warmly greeted by all lips and hearts present.</p>
+
+    <p>When these pleasant evenings had come to an end, the
+    friendly intercourse was not allowed to drop, and so a number
+    of sketches by her new friends found their way into Miss
+    Clara's album.</p>
+
+    <p>In the following winter, when I left on a short visit to
+    Leipsic, he sent her a few lines through me. I quote from his
+    letter because the wording is peculiar, and illustrates his
+    capacity for expressing himself in a language that he had to
+    evolve from his inner consciousness:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Herr Rag schickt zu Fräulein Moscheles <i>sein</i>
+    empfehlung und <i>ihren</i> bruder; es wird höflicht gebeten
+    das sie wird die sach reciprokiren, und in fünftzen dägen
+    <i>ihr</i> empfehlung und <i>seinen</i> freund zuruck
+    schicken."</p>
+
+    <p>For the benefit of those whose inner consciousness is not in
+    touch with the above, I give the English version:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Rag sends <i>his</i> greeting and <i>her</i> brother
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87"
+       id="page87"></a>{87}</span> to Miss Moscheles, and kindly
+       requests her to reciprocate the proceeding in a fortnight by
+       returning <i>her</i> greeting and <i>his</i> friend."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/86.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/86.png"
+             alt="'HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN BRUDER.'" />
+        </a>"HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+        UND IHREN BRUDER."
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figleft"
+         style="width:35%;">
+        <a href="images/87-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/87-1.png"
+             alt="LIX." /></a>LIX.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>When I think how easily and spontaneously such sketches
+    dropped from his pen, I am reminded of a passage in one of
+    Mendelssohn's letters to my mother; he sends her the
+    <i>Mailied</i> and says: "This morning a song came to me. I
+    really must write it down for you." So, too, from the first the
+    pen-and-ink compositions came to du Maurier. His talent
+    manifested itself not only in a desire to illustrate this or
+    that incident or adventure, but also in his inexhaustible
+    capacity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page88"
+       id="page88"></a>{88}</span> for making something out of
+       nothing, and as the nothing was never lacking, he might well
+       say: "Dear Bobtail, I will never write without sending my
+       compliments to thine album." His rendering of "Cher Lix,"
+       for instance, takes the shape of a graceful monogram, or
+       diplogram, or whatever I ought to call a combination of our
+       two profiles and my name.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/87-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/87-2.png"
+             alt="'Dear Bobtail, I write to you out of sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to pack up for the next half-hour.'" />
+        </a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He starts a short missive with a sketch of himself seated in
+    his trunk, pipe in mouth, and
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page89"
+       id="page89"></a>{89}</span> says: "Dear Bobtail, I write to
+       you out of sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to
+       pack up for the next half-hour." Or he draws himself looking
+       over my shoulder whilst I am writing to my sister and puts
+       the supposed context of my letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/88.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/88.png"
+             alt="AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY &mdash;&mdash;" />
+        </a>AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY &mdash;&mdash;
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Bobtail writes (in German of course):</p>
+
+    <p>"I won't write any more, for there's an indiscreet fellow
+    looking over my
+    &mdash;&mdash;"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page90"
+       id="page90"></a>{90}</span> 
+
+    <p>"<i>Rag</i>. It's not true, I swear. (For Miss Clara.)"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/89.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/89.png"
+             alt="DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN." /></a>DU MAURIER AT
+             WORK AGAIN.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another time he wants me to send him some brushes and
+    various other painting materials he enumerates: "Oh, and a
+    little thing like this for oil to do the thing cheesy." He
+    depicts himself quite elated; his eyes seemed so much better
+    that he had once more resumed work in the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page91"
+       id="page91"></a>{91}</span> studio of his friend Goyers.
+       "Gruss from maternal and self," he ends; "ganz hertzlich;
+       come soon, or write soon, or do something soon, hang
+       it.&mdash;Thy RAG, jusqu' à la mort."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/90.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/90.png"
+             alt="'CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI.'" />
+        </a>"CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+        GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Monsieur Staps, Sous-Chef of the "Guides," the best military
+    band in Brussels, was a friend of ours. He had invited us to
+    one of the famous Concerts du Conservatoire, a treat in
+    anticipation of which du Maurier at once takes to the pen, and
+    shows us in classical garments and dignified attitudes
+    listening to the "young men of the Conservatorio." "Sketch
+    represents," he says <span class="pagenum"><a name="page92"
+       id="page92"></a>{92}</span> "Claudius Felix et Publius
+       Busso, cum centurione Guidorum, audientes juvenes
+       Conservatorioni, A.D. CCLVIII." The "Busso" derived from his
+       full name&mdash;George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier.</p>
+
+    <p>In striking contrast with the last drawing is the next. Here
+    we are decidedly anything but conventional in our attire, as he
+    depicts us in "Double-bedded room, Brussels. Time 11 a.m.
+    (train starts 11.20). Bobtail's face being rather smutty, he
+    washes it, and Rag's boots being rather tight, he puts them on
+    at leisure, during which process he has time to smoke three
+    pipes. <i>Bobtail</i>. Bub-bub-bub-bub ... whew ... pouf!...
+    <i>Rag</i>. How
+    many?"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page93"
+       id="page93"></a>{93}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/92.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/92.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A favourite theme of his was his supposed inability to shine
+    on occasions when I had introduced him to friends of mine, and
+    was particularly anxious to show him off to advantage, and
+    then, again, the unrelenting fate that would swiftly overtake
+    him if he ventured to put himself forward. I need not say that
+    the inability and the discomfiture existed only in his
+    imagination, for in all circles he was ever appreciated and
+    admired. But he would have it otherwise,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page95"
+       id="page95"></a>{95}</span> and pourtrays us side by side
+       with the legend&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/94.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/94.png"
+             alt="'The height of enjoyment.&lt;br /&gt; Rag thinking of his eyes, in a pair of tight boots, with Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever, you stupid muff!''" />
+        </a>"The height of enjoyment.<br />
+         Rag thinking of his eyes, in a pair of tight boots, with
+        Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever, you stupid
+        muff!'"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another drawing shows what happened when for once in a way
+    he presumed to accept the homages of the
+    fair.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page96"
+       id="page96"></a>{96}</span> 
+
+    <p>"One fine morninge, earlie, at ye Café de la Plage,
+    Blankenberghe, ye celebrated Rag, deeming himself alone,
+    treateth himself to a private performance of ye Padre furioso e
+    figlia infelice, in imitatione of his illustrious friende,
+    Felix Bobtailo. Presentlie a voice exclaimeth behind him,
+    'Monsieur, permettez moi de vous féliciter,' and a ladie
+    politelie maketh him complimente on his talente. Rag replieth
+    that she must not be surprised thereat, as hys life has been
+    spent among ye great musicians, and that therefore he can
+    scarcelie helpe being a consummate musician himselfe. Shortly
+    after as he lighteth hys cigarre at ye barre, he enquireth
+    bumptiously, 'Who might that good ladie be?' 'She is the
+    prima-donna of the Munich Opera, Monsieur.' Whereupon ye soul
+    of ye humiliated Rag sinketh into hys bootes, and he retireth
+    for ever under a perpetual extinguisher.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ye hero of ye above unfortunate adventure presenteth hys
+    compliments to Miss Clara Moscheles, and beggeth she will
+    deigne to accepte ye sketche in acknowledgment of ye last box
+    of 'acidulated lemon-flavoured droppes' entrusted to her
+    brother's care (need he remark that they have not yet reached
+    their destination).</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page97"
+       id="page97"></a>{97}</span> 
+
+    <p>"Miss Clara is invited to observe how cunninglie ye profile
+    of Rag is made to imitate that of her talented brother."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/96.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/96.png"
+             alt="YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE." />
+        </a>YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+        PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Du Maurier's stay in Blankenberghe was but short. He soon
+    went to Düsseldorf to put himself under the treatment of a
+    famous oculist, Hofrath de Leeuwe, who resided not far from
+    there at Gräfrath. He wrote, in high spirits: "Spent yesterday
+    in Gräfrath; jolly place, lots of beauties, plenty of singing
+    and sketching and that sort of thing, you know. Long walks in
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page98"
+       id="page98"></a>{98}</span> beautiful valleys, most
+       delightful. The fact is, I'm so beastly merry since I've
+       been here that I don't think I'm quite sane, and altogether
+       only want your periodical visits and permission to have my
+       fling on Saturday nights to be in heaven. Doctor says he'll
+       do me good; have to go to Gräfrath once a week. Ça me bote
+       joliment. Good-bye, my old. Thine ever</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:40%;">
+        <a href="images/97.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/97.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He had met some old acquaintances and fraternised with some
+    English and American artists, had got into the swim of Gräfrath
+    society, such as it was, and was soon placed on a pedestal,
+    whilst sundry beauties sat at his feet and, to the best of my
+    belief, sighed. "They all want me to make etchings of the
+    little can-cans and lick-spittlings going on here. Splendid
+    study; shall <span class="pagenum"><a name="page99"
+       id="page99"></a>{99}</span> think about it. Carry novel, of
+       course, adjourned <i>sine die</i>; haven't got time just
+       now&mdash;you know what a fellow I am. Just got her letter;
+       very naïve and amusing&mdash;but don't tell her so, or else
+       she will pose for that and spoil it. Here is a little
+       drawing for you. Do all honour to it, since it has met with
+       a little ovation here."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/98.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/98.png"
+             alt="AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR." /></a>AT THE HOFRATH'S
+             DOOR.<br />
+        "SHE. REALLY I DON'T SEE THE SLIGHTEST MOTE IN YOUR
+        EYES."<br />
+        "HE. NO, BUT I CAN SEE THE BEAMS IN YOURS."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He calls it "a new adaptation from the New Testament." He
+    and a charming "she" sit waiting their turn at the Hofrath's
+    door. <i>He</i> is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100"
+       id="page100"></a>{100}</span> looking into her eyes and
+       <i>she</i> into his. "Really I don't see the slightest mote
+       in your eyes," says she. "No, but I can see the beams in
+       yours," he replies.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/99.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/99.png"
+             alt="'I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!'" />
+        </a>"I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+        DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Did du Maurier ever attempt to shave anybody, I wonder?
+    According to one of the sketches he sent me from Düsseldorf he
+    did, and was so engaged on a blind man Kennedy,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page101"
+       id="page101"></a>{101}</span> when a Captain Marius comes on
+       the scene and says, in discreet whisper and with much
+       concern, "I say, governor, mind you don't gash his throat as
+       you did that poor old Spaniard's! (<i>Out loud</i>) How d'ye
+       do, Kennedy?"</p>
+
+    <p>The same Mr. Kennedy figures once more, when, unaware of the
+    presence of the captain, he discreetly informs the professor
+    that Captain Marius Blueblast "is na' but a sinfu'
+    blackguard."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/100.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/100.png"
+             alt="MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST 'IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD.'" />
+        </a>MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE
+        PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+        BLACKGUARD."
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/101.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/101.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A portrait he drew of the doctor was a great success. "I
+    have done the old cock's portrait
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102"
+       id="page102"></a>{102}</span> stunningly," he says; "nine
+       crosses of the Legion of Honour, &amp;c. Not a sou into my
+       pocket; all for poor-box. Fancy a fellow like me making
+       presents to the poor-box (<i>vide</i> sketch)! But as the
+       portrait will be very much spilt about (<i>répandu</i>), I
+       may fish a stray order or two. I have followed your advice
+       for a whole week and done a magnificent Framboisy. Shall not
+       attempt to go on until you are here to give me another
+       stirring-up. Am going to Antwerp next week (always am).
+       Shall you be moving too? Journey together&mdash;great fun.
+       Take care of my purse and passport, and see my trunks are
+       locked."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page103"
+       id="page103"></a>{103}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/102.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/102.png"
+             alt="MEETING IN DÃœSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE." />
+        </a>MEETING IN DÃœSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF
+        THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page106"
+       id="page106"></a>{106}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/103.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/103.png"
+             alt="SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:&mdash;" />
+             </a>SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:&mdash; 
+
+        <p>"Dark was the sun! Heavy the clouds on the cliffs of
+        Oithona&mdash;when the fair-headed son of the Maurialva
+        crossed his claymore with the stern dark-browed Bobthailva
+        and swore friendship on the names of Carry and Damask."</p>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page107"
+       id="page107"></a>{107}</span> 
+
+    <p>I was moving, and as du Maurier kept on being about to go to
+    Antwerp, I went to pay him a flying visit at Düsseldorf on my
+    way to Paris. We sat into the small hours of the morning (as he
+    depicts us), talking of the past, present, and future, a
+    long-necked Rhine-wine bottle and two green glasses beside us,
+    our hopes and aspirations rising with the cloud that curled
+    from my ever-glowing cigar. We talked till his fertile
+    imagination took us across the sea, and "Ragmar of the
+    Maurialva and Bobthailva, the son of Moscheles, swore eternal
+    amity on their native heath."</p>
+
+    <p>Damask was another beauty whom we appreciated, perhaps all
+    the more because we knew she was dying of consumption.</p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p>In Paris I was probably absorbed in some work I had in hand
+    and must have neglected du Maurier, for he writes urging me to
+    answer by return of post and give an account of myself. He had
+    been visited, he says, by an alarming nightmare, which he
+    forthwith sketches for my benefit. Carry, the Circe, had
+    captured the lion. The noble beast&mdash;that was me&mdash;had
+    succumbed to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108"
+       id="page108"></a>{108}</span> wiles of the enchantress, and
+       submitted tamely to being combed and brushed and to having
+       his claws clipped by her hand. Like birds of a feather, so
+       do lions of a name, flock together. And so another noble
+       beast&mdash;that was he&mdash;is seen approaching,
+       presumably to claim his share of the combing and clipping
+       and of whatever other favours may be forthcoming.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/105.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/105.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figleft"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/106-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/106-1.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another time when, I suppose, I was again letting him wait
+    for an answer, he writes from Düsseldorf: "DEAR
+    BOBTAIL,&mdash;Est-ce que tu te donnes le genre de m'oublier
+    par hazard? I <span class="pagenum"><a name="page109"
+       id="page109"></a>{109}</span> have been expecting a letter
+       from you every day, running thus: 'DEAR RAG,&mdash;Come to
+       Paris <i>immediately</i>, to illustrate thirty-six
+       periodical papers which I have got for you. In haste,
+       Bobtail.' My old pal, Tom Armstrong, is here, working hard;
+       eyes the same as ever. Write soon and tell all about that
+       portrait. Düsseldorf rencontre was jolly." The letter is
+       headed by a drawing representing me soaring heavenwards,
+       whilst he, chained to the spot, is philosophically
+       consulting the cards on his prospects of release.</p>
+
+    <div class="figright"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/106-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/106-2.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page110"
+       id="page110"></a>{110}</span> 
+
+    <p>Then comes a postscript: "Going in for this sort of
+    thing."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:90%;">
+        <a href="images/107-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/107-1.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Will you come old fellow and be</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:70%;">
+        <a href="images/107-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/107-2.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>I suppose I answered saying that I only put off writing till
+    I had mustered the full complement of periodicals. If I was in
+    a prophetic mood I may have added that it was all right, and
+    that very shortly thirty-six editors would be clamouring for
+    his work, and perhaps thirty-six States hallooing for him to
+    come over <i>immediately</i>.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page111"
+       id="page111"></a>{111}</span> Hoping to be punch'd at an
+       early date, I probably remained his, &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+    <p>The early date came, for, before his final return to
+    England, we met once more in Antwerp and Malines. And that
+    takes me back to Carry. She was changed to her advantage, so,
+    at least, the world of Malines thought. We were not quite so
+    sure that the change would prove altogether to her advantage.
+    She had been quite pretty enough before, and we thought she
+    could well have done without developing further physical
+    attractions. She had always known how to use her eyes, not
+    unfrequently shedding their beneficent light on two persons at
+    the same time, and we considered that that number should not be
+    exceeded. But now their activity seemed daily increasing, and
+    it was not without concern that we noticed in her a certain
+    restlessness and a growing tendency to discuss with the serpent
+    questions relating to the acquisition of prohibited apples.
+    After a while, and perhaps in consequence of the good advice we
+    gave her, she sobered down and surprised us by her docility;
+    but at best her moods were uncertain and she puzzled us
+    much.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page112"
+       id="page112"></a>{112}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/109.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/109.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Now, Bobtail," said Rag, as we walked along the sober old
+    streets of Malines, discussing the state of Carry's mind and
+    heart. (He has omitted the streets, but has put us into our
+    very best mediæval suit.) "Now, Bobtail, what do
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page113"
+       id="page113"></a>{113}</span> you think? Is she in love? And
+       if so, with whom?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She may be, or she may be not," said Bobtail, with oracular
+    discretion; "but, if she is, it can only be with one of us. She
+    would not waste her sentiment on a native whilst we were within
+    reach."</p>
+
+    <p>"But which of us is it?" asked Rag, somewhat alarmed.</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not; but I hope neither," answered the oracle thus
+    appealed to; "but the state of her mind, I believe, is this: If
+    she were to marry you, she would fall in love with me; and if
+    she were to marry me, she would fall in love with you."</p>
+
+    <p>This dictum must have impressed du Maurier, for it started
+    him on a series of drawings, with accompanying text in
+    illustration of it. There were to be two volumes. The first, in
+    which I figure as the husband, was rapidly produced; the
+    second, in which he was to be the husband, never saw the light
+    of day. It was shelved <i>sine die</i>, a proceeding I always
+    thought particularly unfair, as he never gave <i>me</i> a
+    chance of being loved. I am compensated, however, by the
+    possession of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114"
+       id="page114"></a>{114}</span> "Cari-catures," as they are
+       called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/111.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/111.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"If Carry were to marry one of us,</p>
+
+            <p>I'd give thee any odds she would be safe,</p>
+
+            <p>O Rag, to love the other&mdash;"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p class="i4">(<i>Shakespere</i>. "<i>Two Swells of
+            Antwerp</i>.")</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story
+    illustrates the truth of the poet's words. His points will be
+    so much better understood later on, when some of the problems
+    connected with our matrimonial laws have been solved, that it
+    would be a pity to publish them prematurely. Suffice it to show
+    how Félix and Georges produced the portrait of Picciola. "Félix
+    put all his talent and Georges all his good will into it, for,
+    once completed, Picciola was to select a husband from the two
+    suitors. After much cogitation she decides for Félix, whilst
+    offering her friendship to Georges, who seems
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page115"
+       id="page115"></a>{115}</span> but moderately satisfied with
+       this arrangement; and then, when husband and wife leave for
+       distant countries, Georges, who cannot bear the thought of
+       being parted from his dear Picciola, enters the service of
+       the young couple and accompanies them on their honeymoon."
+       This mythical journey gives the author opportunities for the
+       subtle psychological analysis of a young lady's heart,
+       strongly inclined to revolt against some of the conventions
+       laid down by Society for its regulation.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/112.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/112.png"
+             alt="PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA." /></a>PORTRAIT OF
+             PICCIOLA.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page116"
+       id="page116"></a>{116}</span> 
+
+    <p>We had fondly hoped we might escort and protect her on the
+    thorny path of life, as pertinently shown in the
+    drawing,<a id="footnotetag3"
+       name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>
+       where we are all three going along, our arms and hands
+       fraternally intertwined and linked together in perfect
+       symmetry, as if therewith to tie the knot of friendship and
+       make it fast for ever and a day.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/113.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/113.png"
+             alt="'ON THEIR HONEYMOON.'" /></a>"ON THEIR
+             HONEYMOON."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>But it was not to be. A big wave intervened to
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page117"
+       id="page117"></a>{117}</span> separate us, and swept away
+       all traces of the road before us. Poor Carry! Yes, she had a
+       story. Sad. Bright. Then sad again. First she gave to Amor
+       what was Amor's, and then to Hymen what was Hymen's. She
+       tasted of the apple her friend the serpent had told her so
+       much about. Then&mdash;"la femme à une chute est rare comme
+       le Niagara"&mdash;and there are more apples than one in the
+       Garden of Eden&mdash;she tried another; such a bad one
+       unfortunately. It was a wonder it didn't poison her, body
+       and soul, but it didn't. There was a moment when the Angel
+       with the flaming sword threatened to cast her adrift, and it
+       would have fared badly with her had not a helping hand come
+       to save her. But sound as she was at the core, and true, she
+       rallied and rose again to new life and unhoped-for
+       happiness. It was a young doctor who came to the rescue; a
+       mere boy he seemed to look at; but a man he was in deed and
+       word. He worked hard and walked fast; he defied convention
+       and challenged fate. With a stout heart he laboured to raise
+       Carry to the level of his affections, and with a strong hand
+       he tightened his hold upon her. He loved her passionately,
+       devotedly, and she, clinging to him as to the instrument of
+       her <span class="pagenum"><a name="page118"
+       id="page118"></a>{118}</span> salvation, gradually regained
+       her better self, and, slowly but surely, learnt to find in
+       her own heart the greatest of treasures that woman can
+       bestow upon man. But he was a Southerner of the French
+       meridional type, excitable and impulsive, and, so, alas! he
+       was jealous of Carry's northern friends and snapped the
+       thread asunder that bound her to them. We only knew, and
+       that we learnt in a roundabout way, that she was the
+       happiest little wife in Paris. Once, and only once, she
+       wrote to us, to tell us how complete was her happiness. A
+       crowning glory had come; a little glory to nurse and fondle,
+       to cry over&mdash;tears of joy; to smile to&mdash;the
+       prettiest, foolishest of mother's smiles; to pray for and to
+       worship from the bottom of her little blossoming soul. It
+       was not till three years later that I was in Paris and
+       succeeded in picking up the thread of Carry's story. Hale
+       and hearty, overflowing with health and happiness, the young
+       doctor had gone to his work at the hospital. He came home
+       blood-poisoned, to die in his wife's arms. It was a case of
+       self-sacrifice in the cause of science, of heroic devotion
+       to a fellow-creature. And the young widow was left alone
+       again, with none to weep over (tears of anguish this time)
+       but the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page119"
+       id="page119"></a>{119}</span> little glory, who, poor thing,
+       could only wonder, but not soothe. What can have become of
+       Carry once more cast adrift in Paris to fight the battle of
+       life in this hard ever love-making world?</p>
+
+    <p>We never knew.</p>
+
+    <p>Back to England. The time had come when&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Who was to be lucky and who to be rich,</p>
+
+            <p>Who'd get to the top of the tree;</p>
+
+            <p>Was a mystery which</p>
+
+            <p>Dame Fortune, the witch,</p>
+
+            <p><i>Was</i> to tell du Maurier and me."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figright"
+         style="width:45%;">
+        <a href="images/116.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/116.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>What with the boxing-gloves and one thing and another, he
+    had been "getting English again by degrees." In a drawing he
+    shows us how he is going through the process arm-in-arm with
+    his old friend, Tom Armstrong, now the Art-Director of that
+    very English institution, the South Kensington Museum.
+    Armstrong and T.R. Lamont, the man who to this day bears such a
+    striking resemblance to our friend the Laird,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120"
+       id="page120"></a>{120}</span> had presented du Maurier with
+       a complete edition of Edgar Allan Poe's works. His
+       appreciation of that author is expressed in a letter which
+       he addressed to Armstrong, and it needs not much reading
+       between the lines to gather what was the literary diet best
+       suited to his taste. It is amusing, too, to notice the
+       little shadows cast here and there by coming events.</p>
+
+    <p>(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time
+    being, synonymous with George du Maurier.)</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Gulielmus Barlow, Thomasino Armstrong,</p>
+
+            <p>Whom we hope is 'gaillardement' getting along</p>
+
+            <p>And salubrious, ave!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p class="i10">You'll wonder, I ween,</p>
+
+            <p>At Barlow's turning topsy-tur&mdash;poet I mean.</p>
+
+            <p>I take odds you'll exclaim, 'twixt a grunt and a
+            stare,</p>
+
+            <p>'Gottferdummi' the beggar's gone mad, I declare,</p>
+
+            <p>And his wits must have followed his
+            'peeper'&mdash;not so;</p>
+
+            <p>He will give you the wherefore, will William
+            Barlow&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Viz: he's so seedy and blue, he's so deucedly
+            triste,</p>
+
+            <p>He's so d&mdash;&mdash;d out of sorts, he's so
+            d&mdash;&mdash;d out of tune,</p>
+
+            <p>That for mere consolation he cannot resist</p>
+
+            <p>The temptation of holding with Tommy commune.</p>
+
+            <p>Then that <i>he</i> should be bothered alone, isn't
+            fair,</p>
+
+            <p>So he'll just bother <i>you</i> a bit, pour se
+            distraire,</p>
+
+            <p>This will partly account for the milk&mdash;then the
+            fact is</p>
+
+            <p>That some heavy swell says that it's deuced good
+            practice,</p>
+
+            <p>And then it's a natural consequence, too,</p>
+
+            <p>Of the classical culture he's just been put
+            through.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page121"
+               id="page121"></a>{121}</span> 
+
+            <p>I'll explain: T'other day the maternal did say,</p>
+
+            <p>'You are sadly deficient in reading, Bill; nay</p>
+
+            <p>Do not wrinkle your forehead and turn up your
+            nose</p>
+
+            <p>(That elegant feature of William Barlow's!)</p>
+
+            <p>You've read Thackeray, Dickens, I know; but it's
+            fit</p>
+
+            <p>You should study the <i>classical</i> authors a
+            bit.</p>
+
+            <p>Heaven knows when your sight will be valid
+            again,</p>
+
+            <p>You may throw down the pencil and take up the
+            pen,</p>
+
+            <p>And you cannot have too many strings to your
+            bow.'</p>
+
+            <p>&mdash;'A-a-amen!' says young William to Mrs.
+            Barlow.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>So we're treated (our feelings we needn't
+            define)</p>
+
+            <p>To a beastly slow book called the 'Fall and
+            Decline'</p>
+
+            <p>By a fellow called Gibbon, be d&mdash;&mdash;d to
+            him; then</p>
+
+            <p>Comes the 'Esprit des lois et des moeurs,' from the
+            pen</p>
+
+            <p>Of a chap hight <i>Voltaire</i>&mdash;un
+            pédant&mdash;qui je crois</p>
+
+            <p>Ne se fichait pas mal et des moeurs et des lois.</p>
+
+            <p>After which just to vary the pleasures,
+            <i>Rousseau</i></p>
+
+            <p>By Emile&mdash;no: Emile by <i>Rousseau</i>? Gad! I
+            know</p>
+
+            <p>That which ever it be it's infernally slow,</p>
+
+            <p>And I'm glad Billy's neither Emile nor
+            Rousseau&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Such my fate is to listen to, longing to
+            slope&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Then come horrid long epics of Dryden and Pope,</p>
+
+            <p>Which I mentally swear a big oath I'll confine</p>
+
+            <p>To the tombs of the Capulets, every line&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Not but what the old beggars may do in their
+            way,</p>
+
+            <p>Gad! Uncommonly fine soporifics are they;</p>
+
+            <p>But they seem after Tennyson, Shelley, and Poe</p>
+
+            <p>Just a trifle <i>too</i> Rosy for Billy
+            Barlow&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Oh, dear Raggedy, oh!</p>
+
+            <p>Ulalume and Ænone for William Barlow.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Erst, they're short. Then they breathe in their
+            mystical tone</p>
+
+            <p>An essence, a spirit, a draught which alone</p>
+
+            <p>Can content Billy's lust, for the weird and
+            unknown</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page122"
+               id="page122"></a>{122}</span> 
+
+            <p>(Billy's out of his depth) they've an undefined
+            sense</p>
+
+            <p>Of the infinite 'mersed in their sorrow intense</p>
+
+            <p>(Billy's sinking! A rope! Some one quick! Damn it!
+            hence</p>
+
+            <p>That mystical feeling so sweetly profound</p>
+
+            <p>Which weaves round the senses a spell (Billy's
+            drowned)</p>
+
+            <p>(Here run for the drags of the Royal Humane!)</p>
+
+            <p>A mystical feeling, half rapture, half pain,</p>
+
+            <p>Such as moves in sweet melodies, such as
+            entrances</p>
+
+            <p>In Chopin's 'Etudes,' and in Schubert's
+            'Romances.'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'!</p>
+
+            <p>Have you ever heard these pretty decently
+            played?</p>
+
+            <p>If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe</p>
+
+            <p>That a treat most delicious you have in reserve.</p>
+
+            <p>Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of
+            clover,</p>
+
+            <p>While Stefani rapidly fingers them over,</p>
+
+            <p>Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over.</p>
+
+            <p>Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream</p>
+
+            <p>Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme,</p>
+
+            <p>Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme!</p>
+
+            <p>Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem,</p>
+
+            <p>In their sad wild unresting irregular flow</p>
+
+            <p>Just expressly concocted for William Barlow.</p>
+
+            <p>Oh! dear Raggedy, oh!</p>
+
+            <p>Why, they ravish the heart, sir, of Billy
+            Barlow."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Du Maurier's stay on the Continent had come to a close some
+    time before mine, and to that circumstance I owe several
+    letters in which he speaks of his first experiences in London.
+    He revelled in the metamorphosis he was going
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123"
+       id="page123"></a>{123}</span> through, and illustrated the
+       past and the present for my better comprehension. There on
+       one side of the Channel he shows the dejected old lion of
+       Malines gnawing his tobaccoless clay pipe, and then on the
+       other the noble beast stalking along jauntily with tail
+       erect and havannah alight. He wrote in high
+       spirits:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/120.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/120.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"DEAR BOBTAIL,&mdash;I need not tell you how very jolly
+        it was to get your letter and to hear good news of you. My
+        reason for not writing was that I intended to make my
+        position before giving of my news to anybody. I was just
+        funky and blue about it at first, but fortunately I was
+        twigged almost immediately, and, barring my blessed
+        idleness, am getting on splendaciously just now. Lots of my
+        things have been out. I'm going in for becoming a
+        swell.</p>
+
+        <p>"How strange to think of such a change. I'm
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124"
+           id="page124"></a>{124}</span> leading the merriest of
+           lives, and only hope it will last. Living with Henley,
+           No. 85, Newman Street; very jolly and comfortable.
+           Chumming with all the old Paris fellows again, all of
+           them going ahead. There's Whistler is already one of the
+           great celebrities here&mdash;Poynter getting on. This is
+           a very jolly little village, and I wish you were over
+           here. They do make such a fuss with an agreeable fellow
+           like you or me, for instance. But I suppose Paris is
+           just as jolly in its way. My ideas of Paris are all
+           Bohème, quartier latin, &amp;c., et si c'était à
+           recommencer, ma foi je crois que je dirais 'zut.' This
+           is a hurried and absurd letter to write to an old pal
+           like you, but I hardly ever have time for a
+           line&mdash;out late every night and make use of what
+           little daylight there is in Newman Street to draw. 'S'il
+           faisait au moins clair de Lune pendant le jour dans ce
+           sacré pays.' I daresay I shall treat myself to a trip
+           over to Paris as soon as the weather is jollier. I
+           intend to go abroad this summer to do some etchings 'qui
+           seront aux pommes.' Is there any chance whatever of your
+           coming over here before? You mustn't form your opinion
+           of my performances by what you may happen to see, as
+           half of what I do is spoiled by bad engraving (that's
+           why I intend <span class="pagenum"><a name="page125"
+           id="page125"></a>{125}</span> to etch), and what I have
+           done, bar one or two things, are merely little chic
+           sketches for money. I have many plans; among others I
+           intend to bring out a series in <i>Punch</i>, with which
+           I shall take peculiar care&mdash;something quite
+           original. I think you would precious soon get more
+           portraits than you could paint here, but if you are
+           getting on so well in Paris, of course it would be
+           madness to leave. But I do not like the idea of your not
+           being one of us&mdash;such a band of brothers full of
+           jolly faults that dovetail beautifully. It was quite a
+           freak of mine coming over here; I did it against
+           everybody's advice&mdash;came over with a ten-pound note
+           and made the rest. 'Your friend Bobtail seems to be the
+           only man who had no doubt of your talent,' writes my
+           mother. 'Enfin c'est prouvé que je suis au moins bon a
+           quelque chose.' Do you go much into the world? I go
+           knocking about as happily as possible, singing and
+           smoking cigars everywhere. Jimmy Whistler and I go
+           'tumbling' together, as Thackeray says. Would you were
+           here to tumble with us! Enfin, mon bon, écris moi
+           vite."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>When at last I too returned to London I was privileged to
+    take my humble share in the "tumbling," as also in the steady
+    process that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126"
+       id="page126"></a>{126}</span> was gradually to wean us from
+       Bohemia. We tumbled pretty regularly into the Pamphilon, a
+       restaurant within a stone's throw of Oxford Circus, of the
+       familiar type that exhibits outside its door a bill of fare
+       with prices appended, to be studied by those who count their
+       shillings and pence as we did. We had got beyond the days
+       when no wines are sour and when tough meat passes muster, if
+       there is only plenty of it; we wanted a sound dinner, and we
+       got it at the Pamphilon; to wind up we adjourned to the
+       coffee-room and talked and read and smoked.</p>
+
+    <p>Stacey Marks, Poynter, Jimmy Whistler, and Charles Keene
+    were among the crew, and others not so well known to fame.
+    Pleasant hours those and gemüthliche, as the Germans say; how
+    different the after-dinner clay pipe or cheap weed of those
+    times to the post-prandial havannah we now complacently whiff
+    at our friend's Mæcenas' hospitable table! Yes, things have
+    changed, my dear Rag, since the day we were paying our bill,
+    and you addressed the waiter with superb affability: "Here,
+    Charles, is a penny for you. I know it isn't much, but I can't
+    afford more."</p>
+
+    <p>It is hard to fancy anything less like Bohemia than Regent
+    Street, but a little incident that
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page127"
+       id="page127"></a>{127}</span> occurred as I walked down that
+       busy thoroughfare one afternoon recalls the best traditions
+       of the land in which practical jokes abound. I was going
+       along without any definite aim, killing time and gathering
+       wool, flanéing, in fact; perhaps there was a touch of the
+       foreigner about me, for I had only lately returned from
+       abroad; anyway I suddenly found myself singled out as a fit
+       subject to be victimised. I felt a hand stealthily sliding
+       into my pocket; on the spur of the moment I grasped that
+       hand in as much of an iron grip as I could muster.
+       Then&mdash;I hardly know why&mdash;I waited quite a number
+       of seconds before I turned round. When I did, it was du
+       Maurier's face that I beheld, blanched with terror. Those
+       seconds had been ages to him. Good heavens! had he made a
+       mistake? Was it not Bobtail's but another man's hand that
+       was clutching his wrist? Thank Heaven, it was Bobtail's!</p>
+
+    <p>There never was an occasion, before or after, I feel
+    absolutely sure, when du Maurier was more truly glad to see me.
+    His colour rapidly returned, and he swore that of all the
+    bonnes blagues this was the best; but for all that, one thing
+    is certain&mdash;he has never since attempted to pick pockets
+    in Regent Street.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page128"
+       id="page128"></a>{128}</span> 
+
+    <p>A delightful compromise between Bohemia and the land where
+    well-regulated Society rules supreme, was the ground on which
+    stood Moray Lodge, the residence of Arthur Lewis, the head of
+    the well-known firm of Lewis and Allenby.</p>
+
+    <p>We have read of him before:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"Sir Lewis Cornelys, as everybody knows, lives in a
+        palace on Campden Hill, a house of many windows, and,
+        whichever window he looks out of, he sees his own garden
+        and very little else. There was no pleasanter or more
+        festive house than his in London, winter or summer."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>I quote this, as probably it may not be known to everybody
+    that Sir Lewis was knighted on the memorable occasion of
+    Trilby's birthday, when she was presented at the
+    drawing&mdash;and every other&mdash;room. With much kindly
+    fore-thought his friend and biographer allows him to be eighty
+    years old in the early sixties, thereby enabling him to have
+    attained to-day the ripe old age of one hundred and
+    fourteen.</p>
+
+    <p>Well, he was one of du Maurier's earliest friends, and when
+    Taffy the Laird, and Little Billie, "a-smokin' their pipes and
+    cigyars," told the cabby to drive to Mechelen Lodge, I found my
+    way to what I called Moray Lodge, and met
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page129"
+       id="page129"></a>{129}</span> them there. And there too, to
+       be sure, was Glorioli, "the tall, good-looking swarthy
+       foreigner from whose scarcely parted, moist, thick, bearded
+       lips issued the most ravishing sounds that had ever been
+       heard from throat of man or woman or boy."</p>
+
+    <p>As we now empty one or the other of the million bottles that
+    are about, marked "De Soria, Bordeaux," we often think with
+    gratitude of the great wine-grower and still greater singer, so
+    correctly described as "singing best for love or glory in the
+    studios of his friends."</p>
+
+    <p>To return to Arthur Lewis:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>He occupied an exceptional position, inasmuch as he had made
+    his house a centre towards which intellectual London
+    gravitated. When he had done this, that, and the other to make
+    his bachelor days memorable to a host of friends, he wound up
+    by marrying one of England's fairest women, our great actress,
+    Kate Terry. It was in those early days that Ellen, the
+    débutante, was introduced to the dramatic world as "Kate
+    Terry's sister." Since then Kate, having elected to rest on her
+    laurels, is proud to be referred to by the younger generation
+    as "Ellen Terry's
+    sister."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page130"
+       id="page130"></a>{130}</span> 
+
+    <p>In early life Lewis had various roads open to him. Born, as
+    he was, with the capacity of a man of business, the means and
+    opportunities of a man of leisure, and the talents of an
+    artist, he managed to follow the three roads at the same time,
+    and they all led to well-deserved success. He was to be found
+    at his desk in Regent Street, at his easel in the studio, or on
+    the threshold of that big billiard and reception room which he
+    had built to entertain his friends. Himself an artist, and for
+    many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was on
+    terms of close friendship with the men who had made their mark
+    in the art-world, and with many who were destined to become
+    famous. He was a Mæcenas of the right sort, knowing a good
+    thing when he came across it, and frequently acquiring it
+    before the sleepy world awoke to its merits.</p>
+
+    <p>I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he welcomed the
+    first pictures Joseph Israels exhibited in England in 1862.
+    Neither in the English nor in the Dutch department of the
+    Exhibition could he ascertain whether these two pictures, "The
+    Drowned Fisherman" and "Washing the Cradle," were for sale. But
+    luck would have it that he was introduced to Israels
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page131"
+       id="page131"></a>{131}</span> at the Academy <i>soirée</i>,
+       and the artist, assuring him that the pictures were
+       "certainly for sale," Lewis secured the coveted works, and
+       was thus the first to establish Israels' fame in
+       England.</p>
+
+    <p>The gatherings in Moray Lodge were unique in their way. It
+    was characteristic of the master and the house that they made
+    everybody feel at home, from the titled aristocrat in the
+    dress-suit to the free-and-easy brother-brush or pen, and the
+    sometimes out-at-elbow friend Bohemian.</p>
+
+    <p>There was the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lorne, Lord
+    Dufferin, Mr. Frederic Leighton, Associate of the Royal
+    Academy, Fred Walker, who sang tenor in the choir, of which
+    more presently, and who on several occasions designed the cards
+    of invitation for Lewis. There was Lord Houghton, Charles
+    Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rossetti, Landseer, Daubigny, Gustave
+    Doré, Arthur Sullivan, Leech, Keene, Tenniel, &amp;c., &amp;c.
+    It is as hard to pass those names over without comment as it
+    must have been to run the gauntlet of Scylla and Charybdis, for
+    every one of them brings back some recollection, and calls upon
+    the pen to start a paragraph with an "I well remember."</p>
+
+    <p>But that would lead me away from Moray
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page132"
+       id="page132"></a>{132}</span> Lodge and the famous Saturday
+       evenings, and I never was, and am not now, in a hurry to get
+       away from that hospitable mansion.</p>
+
+    <p>The billiard-table was boxed over on the gala nights and
+    transformed into a buffet. It was covered with bottles and
+    glasses, pipes and cigars, and towards the close of the evening
+    with mountains of oysters. The amount we consumed on one
+    occasion was 278 dozen, as I happen to know. But the great
+    attraction at these gatherings was the part-singing of the
+    twenty-five "Moray Minstrels." John Foster was the conductor,
+    and led them to such perfection that the severest critic of the
+    day, dear old crabbed Henry F. Chorley, proclaimed them the
+    best representatives of the English school of glee-singing.</p>
+
+    <p>Another no less interesting feature was the performance of
+    small theatrical pieces. Du Maurier and Harold Power had given
+    us charming musical duologues, like "Les Deux Aveugles," by
+    Offenbach, and "Les Deux Gilles," with great success, and that
+    led to further developments and far-reaching consequences. A
+    small party of friends were dining with Lewis. "What shall we
+    get up next?" was the question
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page133"
+       id="page133"></a>{133}</span> raised. "Something new and
+       original," suggested the host. "Now, Sullivan, you should
+       write us something." "All right," said Sullivan, "but how
+       about the words? Where's the libretto?" "Oh, I'll write
+       that," said Burnand. And thus those two were started. "Cox
+       and Box," a travesty of "Box and Cox," was read and
+       rehearsed a fortnight afterwards at Burnand's house, and the
+       following Saturday it was performed at Moray Lodge. Du
+       Maurier was "Box," Harold Power "Cox," and John Foster
+       "Sergeant Bouncer." Du Maurier's rendering of "Hush-a-by,
+       Bacon," was so sympathetic and tender that one's heart went
+       out to the contents of the frying-pan, wishing them pleasant
+       dreams.</p>
+
+    <p>Then there was his famous duet with "Box," reciting their
+    marriage to one and the same lady, and the long recitative in
+    which the printer describes his elaborate preparations for
+    suicide.</p>
+
+    <p>How he solemnly walked to the cliff and heard the seagulls'
+    mournful cry&mdash;and looked all around&mdash;there was nobody
+    nigh. Then (disposing his bundle on the brink)&mdash;"Away to
+    the opposite side I walked." ("Away" on the high A, that
+    Sullivan put in on purpose for du
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page134"
+       id="page134"></a>{134}</span> Maurier, who possessed that
+       chest-note in great fulness.)</p>
+
+    <p>I must skip a few years and speak of a drawing that appeared
+    in <i>Punch</i> in 1875,<a id="footnotetag4"
+       name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a>
+       and which has a special interest for me; it brings back to
+       my mind a happy thought of du Maurier's, which is closely
+       connected with a particularly happy thought of my own, that
+       took root then and has flourished ever since.</p>
+
+    <p>I must explain that there was a time when I had to console
+    myself with the reflection that the course of true love never
+    runs smooth. A lady whom in my mind I had selected as a
+    mother-in-law, by no means reciprocated my feelings of respect
+    and goodwill. But the young lady, her daughter, fortunately
+    sided with me, and had, in fact, given her very willing consent
+    to the change in her mother's position which I had suggested. I
+    was naturally anxious to assure that young lady as frequently
+    and as emphatically as possible how much I appreciated her
+    assistance, and how determined I was never to have any other
+    mother-in-law but the one of my choice; nor could there be
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page135"
+       id="page135"></a>{135}</span> anything obscure in such a
+       declaration, as of three sisters in the family that
+       particular one was the only unmarried one. But neither in
+       obscure nor in explicit language was I allowed to approach
+       her; a blockade was declared and rigorously enforced, and we
+       were soon separated by a distance of some few hundred
+       miles.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/132.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/132.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page137"
+       id="page137"></a>{137}</span> 
+
+    <p>I can look back complacently on the troubles of those days
+    now that twenty years have elapsed since I emerged victorious
+    from the contest; but then the future looked blank and bleak,
+    and I felt nonplussed and down-hearted. Knowing, however, what
+    a faint heart is said never to win, I was anxious to keep mine
+    up to the mark, and with a view to stimulating its buoyancy I
+    went to make a friendly call on du Maurier. He would, I felt
+    sure, be sympathetic, and, whatever else might be wanting in
+    that troublesome eye of his, there would be a certain vivifying
+    twinkle in it that could always set me up.</p>
+
+    <p>It was as I expected, and I had the full benefit of the eye,
+    and of an ear, too, that he lent willingly as I told him how
+    matters stood.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," he said, "if you can't smuggle in a
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138"
+       id="page138"></a>{138}</span> letter, let's smuggle in your
+       portrait. It will be rather a joke if she comes across you
+       in <i>Punch</i>. I've just got a subject in which I can use
+       you."</p>
+
+    <p>To be sure, I jumped at the idea, only beseeching him to
+    make me as handsome as he possibly could, without losing sight
+    of the main object, viz., that the young lady should be able to
+    recognise me. Her mother too, I felt sure, would not fail to be
+    duly impressed, for to figure in <i>Punch</i> would raise me in
+    her estimation as a person of no small importance.</p>
+
+    <p>The drawing was made and published, and the scheme worked
+    well; coupled, perhaps, with a few millions of other
+    influences, and with the assistance of the Fates, it achieved
+    the desired result, and before a year had elapsed the original
+    drawing could be presented by du Maurier to the young lady, now
+    become a bride, as a memento of bygone troubles.</p>
+
+    <p>One more digression suggested by the name of Arthur
+    Sullivan; it shall be the last. I am not going back to the time
+    when we were boys together in Leipsic, but will only mention
+    him in connection with Carry; this time Carry in another
+    form.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page139"
+       id="page139"></a>{139}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/137.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/137.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page141"
+       id="page141"></a>{141}</span> 
+
+    <p>Shortly after that big wave intervened that separated her
+    from us a happy chance put me in possession of a dog, the most
+    affectionate and lovable of Skye terriers.</p>
+
+    <p>I named him Carry.</p>
+
+    <p>That dog, his qualities and virtues, and especially his
+    musical gifts, deserve more than a passing mention; but,
+    trusting that he, like every dog, will have his day, I will
+    here only transcribe a letter of his that he wrote with the
+    assistance of his friend, Arthur Sullivan, who, attracted
+    perhaps by the gifts above named, had kindly taken charge of
+    him during my temporary absence on the Continent. Poor dog! He
+    is dead now; so that there can be no indiscretion in publishing
+    his bark and its translation. The former is best given in its
+    original setting. The latter, purporting to be a "Translation
+    of the foregoing by A.S.," runs as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED MASTER,&mdash;My kind friend, Mr.
+        Sullivan, who pretends to be as fond of me as you are, has
+        taken me away from the enjoyment of a delicious mutton
+        bone, in order to answer your letter; and as I cannot find
+        a pen to suit me well, he is writing whilst I dictate.
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page142"
+           id="page142"></a>{142}</span> I was very low-spirited
+           the other day after leaving you, and appeared to feel
+           the parting very much, but it soon wore off under the
+           influence of biscuit, bones, and kindness; indeed, I
+           must do Sully and his family the justice to say that
+           they try to do the utmost to make me happy and
+           comfortable, although they don't always succeed, for
+           sometimes I appear dissatisfied (hoping,
+           <i>entre-nous</i>, by that means to get more out of
+           them).</p>
+
+        <p>"I have several idiosyncrasies and failings, of which my
+        master (<i>pro tem.</i>) is trying to correct me, but finds
+        it rather hard work, for I am not so easily brought out of
+        them. I have a will of my own, but Sully says: 'Train up a
+        dog in the way it should go, and he will not depart,
+        &amp;c., &amp;c.'&mdash;and Sully is right.</p>
+
+        <p>"Don't you think it is a bad plan to wash me with soap?
+        I think it deters me from licking my skin, and consequently
+        from having those ideas of cleanliness engendered within me
+        which are so necessary to every well-bred dog moving in
+        good society!</p>
+
+        <p>"I want to get back to my bone, but Sully says I must
+        first deliver a message from him. You are to give his love
+        to your dear parents
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page143"
+           id="page143"></a>{143}</span> (in which I heartily
+           join), and tell them how grieved he was that he did not
+           see them to wish them 'God speed' before they left
+           England, and how it hurt him to think that a long, long
+           time would perhaps elapse before he should see them
+           again.</p>
+
+        <p>"And now, my dear master, I must say 'Good-bye.' Much
+        love in few words, in which Sully joins me.</p>
+
+        <p>"Believe me, ever your</p>
+
+        <p>"Attached and faithful
+        dog,</p><a href="images/140.png"><img class="inline"
+             src="images/140.png"
+             width="50%"
+             alt="Carry X his mark" /></a> 
+
+        <p>"F. MOSCHELES, Esq."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>And now I come to du Maurier's last letter&mdash;the best,
+    as I am sure every right-minded person will admit. I have kept
+    it "pour la bonne bouche" (excuse my quoting French. "Will me
+    not of it," as our neighbours say; there are unassailable
+    precedents for such quoting, you know&mdash;or ought to know).
+    The letter in question speaks of an event so momentous, that of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page144"
+       id="page144"></a>{144}</span> all events it is the one most
+       worthy to "be marked with a white, white stone"; and marked
+       it was, if not with a stone, with satins and laces and a
+       veil and white orange blossoms.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come and be introduced to the future Mrs. Kicky," it said.
+    "She intends to celebrate her 21st birthday by a small dance.
+    There will be friends and pretty girls, 'en veux tu, en violà.'
+    So rek-lect, olf'lah, Tuesday, at half-past seven."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:90%;">
+        <a href="images/141.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/141.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The drawing shows how I was introduced, and how graciously I
+    was received.</p>
+
+    <p>The letter needs a word of explanation, as it
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145"
+       id="page145"></a>{145}</span> speaks of the "future Mrs.
+       'Kicky,'" and I have not yet mentioned that Kicky was but
+       another name for du Maurier. He got it at an early period of
+       his life. Just as any other baby less favoured by "Dame
+       Fortune the witch" would have done, he gave himself his
+       nickname. He picked it up in Brussels when he was two years
+       old, and under the care of Flemish servants. They called him
+       "Mannekin" (little man), and that he converted into "Kicky."
+       I append one of the numerous varieties of his signature.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:40%;">
+        <a href="images/142.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/142.png"
+             alt="Kick" /></a>
+    </div>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p>The Rag, Tag, and Bobtail had its day, and was shelved soon
+    after we bid adieu to Bohemia; but the Kicky survived and
+    flourished, and to-day not only his old chums, but those
+    nearest and dearest to him, feel that they could not do without
+    that particular appellation, associated as it is with a
+    thousand and one happy
+    memories.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page146"
+       id="page146"></a>{146}</span> 
+
+    <p>And having arrived at that busiest of stations, the
+    Matrimonial Junction, where the converted bachelor alights and
+    changes for Better or for Worse, this chapter fitly comes to a
+    close, meant as it was only to sketch some of the pleasant
+    recollections that I, in common with so many of his friends,
+    have of du Maurier's bachelor days.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote1"
+                    name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote2"
+                    name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Pour bien apprécier la valeur artistique de cette
+        romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les
+        yeux fixes sur le profit de Bobtail.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote3"
+                    name="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>See Frontispiece.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote4"
+                    name="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Published by kind permission of the proprietors of
+        <i>Punch</i>.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13517 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13517 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13517)
diff --git a/old/13517-8.txt b/old/13517-8.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In Bohemia with Du Maurier
+       The First Of A Series Of Reminiscences
+
+Author: Felix Moscheles
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2004 [EBook #13517]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, William Flis, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
+
+_THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF REMINISCENCES_
+
+BY
+
+FELIX MOSCHELES
+
+WITH 63 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
+
+BY
+
+G. DU MAURIER
+
+_ILLUSTRATING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN THE FIFTIES_
+
+LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The few introductory words to this volume were written, and the last
+proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news overtook me in lovely
+Venice. My world, resplendent with sunshine, was suddenly lost in
+darkness. The most lovable of men, whose presence alone sufficed to
+make life worth living to all those near and dear to him, was gone
+from amongst us. His hand was no longer to hold those pens--the
+finely-pointed one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His
+well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth.
+
+Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages jars upon me.
+How differently would I attune the story of our student days, were I
+to write it to-day in loving memory of my friend!
+
+But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book, cordially endorsed
+by him, is printed and all but issued; he would not let me recall
+it, I know. He himself, in his kindly, simple way, had enjoyed my
+resuscitation of our early recollections, and had here and there lent
+a helpful hand even to the correcting of the proofs.
+
+To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as I would
+now venture to record them, I must wait till the heavier clouds have
+cleared away and left the picture, I would draw once more to stand out
+brightly in the background of Time.
+
+FELIX MOSCHELES.
+
+October, 1896.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a trifle more in
+my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time before he published his
+"Trilby"; and that remark started us talking of the good old times in
+Antwerp, and overhauling the numerous drawings and sketches in which
+he so vividly depicted the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed
+to me that some of those drawings should be published, if only to
+show how my now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In
+order that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the
+following pages.
+
+The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not the wild
+country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional savages, so often
+described, but a little cultivated corner of the land, as I found it
+in Antwerp, a mere background to the incidents I had to relate. Such
+as it is, it may perhaps serve here and there to point to the original
+soil from which were eventually to spring some of the figures so
+familiar to us to-day.
+
+To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories, and if
+I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that pleasures shared
+are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I always was, I am truly
+glad to have the opportunity of giving a hearty welcome to those
+who may care to join my friend and myself in our ramblings and our
+"tumblings."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I. 17
+
+PART II. 69
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  "FOR EVER AND A DAY" _Frontispiece_
+
+  THE ATELIER GLEYRE 18
+
+  MY BLOUSE 20
+    (_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)
+
+  PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES 27
+
+  FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING 30
+
+  MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE 32
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX 32
+
+  MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES #33
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX 33
+
+  F. S'IL ÉTAIT CHEVAL 33
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES 34
+
+  "CE SACRÉ VÉSICATOIRE" 35
+
+  ISABEL DU MAURIER 35
+
+  MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?--WHICH 40
+
+  "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" 42
+
+  DU MAURIER IMPROVISING 43
+
+  HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES
+      TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG 44
+
+  THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT 46
+
+  "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE" 49
+
+  "SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE" 50
+
+  A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR 57
+
+  THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY 60
+
+  FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY 64
+
+  "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY 65
+
+  RAG 72
+
+  BOBTAIL 72
+
+  "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I
+      WONDER." 76
+
+  COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS 80
+
+  CLARA MOSCHELES 83
+
+  "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN
+      BRUDER." 87
+
+  CHER LIX 88
+
+  "AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----" 89
+
+  DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN 90
+
+  "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES
+      JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI" 91
+
+  DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS 93
+
+  THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT 95
+
+  YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE
+      PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE 97
+
+  AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR 99
+
+  "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT
+      POOR OLD SPANIARD'S" 100
+
+  MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR
+      THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD" 101
+
+  MEETING IN DÜSSELDORF 103
+
+  SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN 106
+
+  PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA 115
+
+  "ON THEIR HONEYMOON" 116
+
+  _Also Illustration on pages_ 37, 88, 98, 102, 108, 109, 110, 112,
+      114, 119, 123, 135, 144, 145.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+"TUMBLINGS"
+
+_WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS._
+
+
+"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the class-rooms
+of the famous Antwerp Academy.
+
+I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in the storm
+and stress period of one's artistic development.
+
+It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris; it was
+there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think I may say,
+very successfully, the essentially French art of chaffing, known by
+the name of "La blague parisienne," and I now was able to give my
+less lively Flemish friends and fellow-students the full benefit of my
+experience. Many pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when
+I heard one day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old
+atelier Gleyre, I was not a little impatient to make his acquaintance.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATELIER GLEYRE.]
+
+The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking it for
+granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in French; we were
+soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and answering questions
+about the comrades in Paris, and sorting the threads that associated
+us both with the same place. "Did you know 'un nommé Pointer'?" he
+asked, exquisitely Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally
+translated this into equally exquisite English, my version naturally
+being: "A man called Poynter."
+
+Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few words in
+his and my native tongue. "What the D. are you--English?" broke in du
+Maurier. "And what the D. are you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D.
+stood for Dickens or for the other one; probably it was the latter. At
+any rate, whether more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and
+there made friends on a sound international basis.
+
+It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier took me in
+at a glance--the eager, hungry glance of the caricaturist. He seemed
+struck with my appearance, as well he might be. I wore a workman's
+blouse that had gradually taken its colour from its surroundings. To
+protect myself from the indiscretions of my comrades I had painted
+various warnings on my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware,"
+"It is forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black
+hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily conceived
+band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's hand could devise,
+and I was doubtless colouring some meerschaum of eccentric design.
+My fellow-student, the now famous Matthew Maris, immortalised that
+blouse and that piece of crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here
+reproduced.
+
+[Illustration: MY BLOUSE.
+
+(_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)]
+
+It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to think that
+I should have been the tool selected by Providence to sharpen du
+Maurier's pencil; there must have been something in my "Verfluchte
+Physiognomie," as a very handsome young German, whom I used to chaff
+unmercifully, called it, to reveal to du Maurier hidden possibilities
+and to awaken in him those dormant capacities which had betrayed
+themselves in the eager glance above named.
+
+This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as regards that
+date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters before me, but they
+offer me no assistance; there is but one dated, and that one merely
+headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent." Well, in 1857, then, let us take it,
+the Antwerp Academy was under the direction of De Keyser, that most
+urbane of men and painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American
+and English lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the
+Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who rapidly
+made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys, Heyermans, and
+the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies after the Masters at
+the Antwerp Gallery are well known to every tourist. The teaching was
+of a sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies of
+the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the traditions
+of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might have studied form
+and learnt to fill it with colour, but here you would be taught
+to manipulate colour, and to limit it by form. A peculiar kind of
+artistic kicks and cuffs were administered to the student by Van
+Lerius as he went his rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you
+have painted in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion--"so
+delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up my palette
+knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah, you see, _savez vous_,
+you can't do it again; you got it by fluke, some stray tints off your
+palette, _savez vous_," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept
+over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints to have
+covered a dozen foreheads.
+
+The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was amusing
+to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and at the shortest
+notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble toes would screw and
+unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or handle the brush as steadily
+as the best and deftest of fingers could have done. Very much unlike
+any of us, he was most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his
+paint box, as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys,
+Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose thread of
+life was soon to be cut short, were painting splendid studies, some
+of which I was fortunate enough to rescue from destruction and have
+happily preserved.
+
+Quite worthy to be placed next to these are Van-der-something's
+studies. That (or something like that) was the name of a wiry, active
+little man who in those days painted in a garret; there everything
+was disarranged chaotically, mostly on the floor, for there was no
+furniture that I can recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine
+old looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked
+contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not badly
+appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an exuberance of charms
+and graces characteristic of a Rubens model.
+
+A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young German,
+brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He had always held
+most rigid principles on questions of morality, but unfortunately
+they failed one day in their application, owing to the less settled
+views entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects. She
+certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but on the other
+she so audaciously appropriated those of his goods and chattels that
+could be turned into money, that the police had to intervene, and she
+eventually found herself before a judge and jury. There, however, she
+managed so well to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to
+this day, I believe was quite innocent, that--"cherchez la femme"--she
+got off, and he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
+
+Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for forging
+their signatures, and he had been found guilty and condemned to severe
+punishment, it would have served him right. He was a perfect gem of
+a forger. He picked up a stock of those dirty old pictures painted on
+worm-eaten panels that used to abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp.
+On these he would paint what might be called replicas with variations,
+cribbing left and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered
+all about the floor. He would scrape and scumble, brighten and deaden
+with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and manipulate till his
+picture, after a given time spent in a damp cellar, would emerge as a
+genuine old master. I once asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular
+customer of his, at what price he sold one of those productions. "I
+really can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I buy
+for exportation to England and America." If any of my friends here
+or over there possess some work of Van-der-something's, I sincerely
+congratulate them, for the little man was a genius in his way.
+
+Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor fellow, he spent
+but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What became of his Circe
+I never sought to know. It was a clear case of "Ne cherchez pas la
+femme!"
+
+The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean Heyermans
+(detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved himself, for he at
+once took me in hand, helped me to find home and hearth, and generally
+gave me the correct tip, so valuable to the stranger. He lost no time
+in teaching me some of those full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from
+the first enabled me to emphasise my meaning when I wished to express
+it in unmistakable language.
+
+He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English, French, and
+German fluently, in addition to his native language, Dutch; so he soon
+chummed with du Maurier and me in several languages, and became one of
+our set. He was always ready to follow us in our digressions from the
+conventional course, and we felt that many of our best international
+jokes would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and
+appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us, inviting us to
+his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply knives and forks, and to
+empty glasses of various dimensions. That gentleman's corpulence had
+reached a degree which clearly showed that he must have "lost sight
+of his knees" some years back, but he was none the less strong and
+active. There were two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other
+sympathetically musical.
+
+How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know, but he
+figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings.
+
+"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come on
+Sunday, may the vengeance of the gods overtake him! Tell him so. I'll
+meet him at the train." And then he sketches the meeting and greeting
+of the two, and the railway guard starting his train with the
+old-fashioned horn-signal on the G.E.C. then in use.
+
+My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular exhibitor in
+Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a remarkable taste and
+talent for teaching.
+
+[Illustration: PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN
+MALINES.]
+
+"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert Browning
+one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking about his son's
+talents and prospects. (This was a few years after my final return to
+England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I said, "to Heyermans; he is the best
+man I know of to start him."
+
+Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a picture
+after little more than a twelve-month that at once found an eager
+purchaser. The poet took great pride in his son's success, and lost no
+opportunity of speaking in the most grateful and appreciative terms
+of the teacher. Millais and Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans'
+reputation was established. A few years ago he migrated to London,
+where he continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the
+Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a rising
+generation.
+
+Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was Alma
+Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time, but had
+previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in the room
+adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively interested in the
+study of costume and history. The incident that led to his leaving
+the academy rather abruptly is characteristic. An uncle of his having
+given him a commission for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for
+authorisation to make the necessary break in his studies. The Director
+accorded him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling
+the circumstance, "I couldn't paint a picture in three weeks then, and
+I cannot now."
+
+I little thought that from his studies of costume and history, the
+comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and uninterrupted
+series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past and presenting it with
+the erudition of the Student and the genius of the Artist. Nor did
+anything foreshadow that my genial Dutch friend, to whom the English
+language was a dead letter, was destined in a not too distant Future
+to become a shining light of England's Royal Academy.
+
+Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and made a
+vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly recollect
+a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and a boy--a
+pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's album--that showed
+talent enough and to spare, but his artistic aspirations were soon to
+meet with a serious check. His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and
+before long put a stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was
+not to become a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know,
+he was to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest
+of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of ink,
+when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or graceful
+shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns to prompt and
+guide that pen.
+
+[Illustration: _From du Maurier's painting._]
+
+
+In those days we called all that caricaturing, and caricature he
+certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the first he imagined he
+saw a marked contrast between us. His nose was supposed to be turned
+up, and mine down, whereas really neither his nor mine much deviated
+from the ordinary run of noses; my lower lip certainly does project,
+but his does not particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary
+contrast inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance,
+and started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all
+conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles and
+I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had we been
+artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the fair sex,
+or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility, if we were
+horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the essence of our
+characteristics, whilst appearing only to delineate our human and
+equine possibilities. Poor F., one of our German friends, fares badly,
+a donkey's head portraying him "s'il était cheval."
+
+[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE.]
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX.]
+
+In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du Maurier left
+Antwerp for Malines, to place himself under the care of an eminent
+oculist who resided within easy reach of that city. That blessed
+blister--"ce sacré vésicatoire," as he calls it, is one of the
+doctor's remedies.
+
+[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES.]
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX.]
+
+[Illustration: F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL.]
+
+The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister of Mercy.
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES.]
+
+In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is now, but
+one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an hour, a circumstance
+which I frequently turned to account. Du Maurier's mother had come to
+live with him, his sister joining them for a short time, and the home
+in quiet old Malines soon became a sort of haven of rest. I spent many
+a happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to say that
+the piano, requisitioned by me for some special purposes of musical
+caricature, detracted somewhat from the restfulness of the haven.
+However that may have been, such intrusion was never resented; my
+Swedish prima donna, or my qualifications as a basso profondo, or a
+brass-bandsman, were always treated with the greatest indulgence by
+the ladies, and my high soprano flourished and positively reached
+unknown altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause.
+(For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")
+
+[Illustration: "CE SACRÉ VESICATOIRE."]
+
+[Illustration: ISABEL DU MAURIER.]
+
+Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the English song,
+or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with his sympathetic
+tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he seemed to be able
+to express more than many who had had the advantage of a musical
+training. A few old letters of his remind me that we were audacious
+enough to write verses and music, he doing the former, I the latter.
+
+"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes. "Take
+strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,' and compose
+some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with which Rag's ideal
+flame has inspired Rag--_surtout_, let it be as good as possible, with
+accompaniment _à l'avenant_. An alteration in the music of each stanza
+would render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
+compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I must
+tell later on.) Then follow the words:--
+
+CHANSON.
+
+_D'apres un barde Britannique_.[1]
+
+  Les sources vont à la rivière
+    Et la rivière à l'océan;
+  Les monts embrassent la lumière,
+    Le vent du ciel se mêle au vent;
+  Contre le flot, le flot se presse;
+    Rien ne vit seul--tout semble, ici,
+  Se fondre en la commune ivresse....
+    Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi?
+  Vois le soleil étreint la terre,
+    Qui rougit d'aise à son coucher--
+  La lune étreint les flots, qu'éclaire
+    Son rayon doux comme un baiser;
+  Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses
+    Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas
+  Que valent toutes ces caresses
+    Si tu ne me caresses pas?[2]
+
+[Footnote 1: See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."]
+
+[Footnote 2: Pour bien apprécier la valeur artistique de cette
+romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les yeux fixes
+sur le profit de Bobtail.]
+
+Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le compositeur de
+face" head the page.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and writes:
+
+"DEAR BOBTAIL,--I send you the Serenade composed 'tant bien que mal'
+last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between the tea
+and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as dramatic as you
+wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and as Mahomet can't write
+words to the mountain's music, the mountain must try and adapt its
+music to the verses of Mahomet.
+
+SÉRÉNADE APRÈS LA SIESTE.
+
+  "Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta paupière,
+    Chasse les rêves d'or de ton léger sommeil--
+  Ils sont là, nos amis; cêde a notre prière
+   Le trône préparé n'attend que ton réveil;
+  Le soleil a cessé de régner sur la terre,
+    Viens régner sur la fête et sois notre soleil.
+  Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux
+  Au jardin des amours, viens ô viens avec nous.
+
+  Au jardin des amours ta place est réservée,
+    Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en fleurs.
+    Viens réveiller en nous de nouvelles ardeurs--
+  Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosée--
+  Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit à la vallée,
+    Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire à nos coeurs!
+  Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
+  Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous.
+
+  Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre,
+    Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux regards pour moi!
+    Déjà j'entends les jeux de la foule en émoi
+  Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux délire!
+  Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra dire:
+    'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a chanté sans toi!'
+  Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
+  Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens ô viens avec nous!
+
+"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance, the first
+tenor says he hears the folks doing the light fantastic toe. One might
+suppose they danced in sabots--mere poetic license, and besides, a
+first tenor ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire
+yourself."
+
+What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have been, I do
+not remember, but I find this is what he writes on the subject--
+
+"CARISSIMO,--In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive powers to alter the
+last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce baiser-la.' The lines I have
+underlined mean that I don't quite approve the part of the music
+that comes just there, as in the musical phrase you have set to it I
+fancy there is a want of tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the
+more I hums it the more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your
+accompaniment."
+
+[Illustration: Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which]
+
+No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather indefinite
+quantities, subject to the mood of the moment. "Moscheles or
+Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts me at the piano,
+perhaps evolving some such accompaniment from the depths of "untrained
+inner consciousness." "Eureka" he might have put under that other
+sketch, where his own hands have at last found some long-sought
+harmony or chord on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat
+later period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am at
+the piano, my eyes raised to the "She" in papillottes, who floats as a
+vision in the clouds, issuing from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my
+feet is stretched the meditative form of my friend, and under them is
+crushed some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven.
+
+[Illustration: "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE."]
+
+[Illustration: DU MAURIER IMPROVISING.]
+
+And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition that most
+people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes" that can inspire,
+I may permit myself to say something about the attractive young lady
+who was able to lead us by easy stages from the vague "inspiration
+papillotique" to an admiration which might be said to culminate in
+flirtation. I don't remember either of us ever trying to cut the other
+out, as the accompanying sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail
+fight a duel for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols.
+Shows the way in which Rag tries to _désillusioñer_ Carry on Bobtail,
+and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto on Rag Carry being on this
+side of the rivals is not represented."
+
+[Illustration: HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.]
+
+The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the enjoyment
+of her good graces, he having the pull of me the greater part of
+the week, and only suspending operations in my favour when I came to
+Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit. These occasions were productive
+of a great number of drawings and sketches, illustrating our little
+adventures, and all plainly showing that the incidents recorded
+occurred to us at that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions
+and buoyant spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of
+the rose colour than many a rose of a later day.
+
+Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at best up
+to the date of last century, beating the record for dry-as-dustiness
+and growing dear little blades of grass between its cobble stones. It
+boasts of a great many churches and of a very great many more priests.
+(_Vide_: The ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.)
+In addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of
+paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and elsewhere,
+there were pretty girls about, and I need not say that, as both of
+us were studying art and devoting our best energies to the cult of
+the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take special notice of
+these pretty girls wherever we came across them. It is probably the
+conscientious performance of his duty in that direction which enabled
+du Maurier to evolve those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of
+female beauty we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been
+becoming in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to show
+less ardour in the pursuit of my studies.
+
+[Illustration: THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+HAT.]
+
+Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black and white
+sketches of Miss Carry, it was reserved for me to paint her portrait
+in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not Carry; that appellation we had
+most unceremoniously and unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else
+about her we invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of
+poetry. And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well worthy
+of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being charmed, of giving
+and taking, of free and easiness, coupled with ladylike reserve. She
+seemed to be born with the intuitive knowledge that there was only one
+life worth living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time
+well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In fact, to
+give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul was steeped in the
+very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to Carry's soul, it may not be
+inappropriate to say something also about her looks; but to describe
+good looks is, as we all know, deliberately to court failure; far
+better request every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he
+will be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man will
+be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop of brown curly
+hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a figure of peculiar elasticity.
+
+Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who had held
+a good position at one of the principal churches of Malines. When he
+died he left but a small inheritance to his widow; with what she could
+realise, she purchased the goodwill of a small tobacconist's store
+and set up in business. Neither the mother nor the daughter had much
+previous knowledge of the concern they had started, and they were
+consequently not very discriminating in the selection of their brands;
+but what was lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by
+Mrs. L.'s obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had
+been steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them
+about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a time
+the little business was as flourishing as anything could well be in
+Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically conservative, and
+hereditarily stationary a city could hardly be expected to encourage
+a new venture of the kind. Still even there there were some young men
+about town, a sort of "jeunesse doré", not of 18-carat gold perhaps,
+but a "jeunesse" quite equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around
+the fair tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier
+and I supplied the rest, and watched over her with chivalrous, if not
+quite disinterested devotion. We differed in every respect from the
+type of the young man of the period above mentioned; so naturally we
+were bright stars in Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior
+beings, and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause;
+du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I could
+mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully! We neither of
+us encourage hero-worship now, but then we were "bons princes," and
+graciously accepted Carry's homage as due to our superior merits.
+
+[Illustration: "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+TOBACCONISTE!"]
+
+There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous devotion of
+ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds, richly attired, as
+true knights and good should be when they go to pay homage to beauty.
+
+"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair tobacconiste!"
+
+[Illustration: "SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"]
+
+"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing fair."
+
+The second drawing shows our "Salut à la Gente et accorte pucelle!"
+and the winning smile with which Carry would receive us.
+
+Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism, formed
+so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation between du Maurier
+and myself, that it takes a very prominent place in my recollections.
+
+In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most interesting
+séances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded to investigate the
+mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I have not touched the fluid
+for some thirty years; I swore off because it was taking too much
+out of me; but I look back with pleasure on my earlier experiments,
+successes I may say, for I was fortunate enough to come across several
+exceptional subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of
+these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling questions
+concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence. Virginie was
+a "femme de ménage" of the true Parisian type, a devoted elderly
+creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman and a housekeeper. I was
+not yet eighteen when I first went to Paris, to study under my cousin,
+the eminent painter, Henri Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie
+installed as the presiding genius of the establishment, using in
+turn broom or tub, needle, grill or frying-pan as the occasion might
+require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by making a
+truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My début in Paris was that
+of the somewhat bewildered foreigner, speaking but very indifferent
+French, and she had from the first done what she could to make me feel
+at home in the strange city, treating me with truly motherly care
+and devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown by a
+passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in Leipsic, where I had
+gone on a visit to my parents. After expressing her anxiety and her
+regret at not being there to nurse me, she emphatically says:--"Je
+rends Madame, votre mère, responsable de votre santé" (I make Madame,
+your mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little to
+lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence to one of
+unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few passes shaping her
+course, I willed her across the boundary line that separates us from
+the unknown, a line which, thanks to science, is daily being extended.
+Madame veuve Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the
+phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were such as to
+surprise and convert many a scoffer.
+
+At the séances, to which I invited my friends and a few scientific
+outsiders, I always courted the fullest investigation, taking it as
+the first duty of the mesmerist to show cause why he should not be
+put down as a charlatan. So we had tests and counter-tests, evidence
+and counter-evidence; there were doctors to feel the pulse and to
+scrutinise the rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific
+ifs and buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
+progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that wheel
+in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the good faith of
+subject and mesmerist could be conclusively proved.
+
+One of these séances led to a rather amusing incident. One night I
+was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my bell, and when,
+after some parleying, I opened the door, I found myself confronted
+by two individuals. One I recognised as an "inquirer" who had been
+brought to my rooms some time previously; the other was a lad I
+had not seen before. The inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully
+watched my _modus operandi_ on the occasion of his visit, had next
+tried experiments of his own. In this instance he had succeeded in
+mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him to his
+normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap fastened round
+his waist, he led him through the streets of Paris to my rooms.
+There we both tried our powers upon him, the result being very
+unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling himself freed from one operator and
+not subjected by the other, refused allegiance to either, and, being
+of a pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
+out at both of us. It was not without considerable difficulty that I
+re-mesmerised him completely, and then, having previously prepared his
+mind to account naturally for his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in
+awakening him, and all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful,
+the youth went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
+and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own account.
+
+I would say more of my séances and all the recollections they evoke,
+were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and to Malines. Once on
+the experiences of those days, I have much to relate--pros and cons,
+if you please, for that subtle magnetic fluid, which, without physical
+contact, one human being can transmit to another, is a ticklish one
+to handle. I cannot pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to
+the Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allongé, the well-known
+French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at the Ecole des Beaux
+Arts. A chance contact of our knees as we sat closely packed with some
+sixty other students put me on the track of a new subject, perhaps the
+most interesting one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But
+of him another time.
+
+Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the reader--that
+is, if natural slumber has not ere this put him beyond my
+control--across the frontier, into the back parlour of Mrs. L.'s
+tobacco store. There I am operating on a boy--such a stupid little
+Flemish boy that no amount of fluid could ever make him clever. How I
+came to treat him to passes I don't remember; probably I used him as
+an object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave him
+a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and burnt
+his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be eaten presently,
+thereby making him howl and grin alternately.
+
+In the middle of our séance Carry is called away by a customer, one
+of the swells of Malines much addicted to a poetical expression of his
+admiration for the fair sex in general and for Carry in particular.
+Greatly to our edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by
+leading him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a
+fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the accompanying
+sketch.
+
+But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even scientific
+experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days. When one stands
+on the threshold of a world of mysteries one cannot but long to bridge
+over the chasm that separates one from the gods, the fairies, or
+the fiends. To be sure, we should have been glad if we could have
+got "light, more light" thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we
+tried to find our way as best we could in the mist. We loved that
+never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear Bohemian
+sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made frequent inroads into
+the boundless land where unknown forces pick up our poor dear little
+conception of the Impossible, and use it as the starting-point of
+never-to-be-exhausted possibilities.
+
+[Illustration: A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.]
+
+Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our
+outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one or
+the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du Maurier
+was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to develop into
+Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in more than one of
+his letters and sketches the future delineator of those characters
+embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on one occasion he depicts
+himself, with fixed gaze and hair erect, sitting bolt upright on my
+hospitable sofa, thrilled and overawed by the midnight presence of the
+uncanny, which I had evoked for his benefit.
+
+"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow to Antwerp
+and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and comfortable--But why,
+when the bleak November wind sobs against the lattice and disturbs the
+dead ashes in the grate, when everything is damned queer and dark,
+and that sort of thing, you know--why should you make nervous fellows'
+flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming to see
+live fellows before dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad!
+it's horrid!"
+
+[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.]
+
+My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive gathering. We
+always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded better, but in reality
+there was only one room with two small alcoves. Studies and sketches
+covered the walls or littered the floor, and the genial figure of a
+skeleton, in very perfect condition, stood in the corner by the piano.
+At first it came with a view to instructing me in the Science of
+Anatomy, but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony
+professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus natural
+that on those occasions when guests had been convened to my rooms,
+he would take a leading part, generally appearing gracefully draped
+and appropriately illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background
+to the gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation,
+and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The sounds
+thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow limits of home, but
+spread far beyond it, a fact which the neighbours, I am sure, would
+have been at any time ready most emphatically to attest.
+
+In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily answerable for the
+magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound to add that my example
+was followed and even improved upon by the more lung-gifted of
+my companions. Amongst the milder forms of entertainment was my
+impersonation of Rachel. That grand actress I had often seen in Paris,
+and had, more than once, shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the
+Tyrant, pouring forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the
+classical language of Racine and Corneille. With those accents still
+ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and there, when surrounded by
+sympathetic friends, the spirit would sometimes move me, and I would
+feel--excuse the conceit of youth--as if I too could have been a
+great female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In
+such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and use the
+blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the classical folds of the
+bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant, hissing fearful hexameters of scorn
+and vituperation into his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so
+magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house which was
+not of the most solid construction.
+
+Another time the cushion yonder would be my child--the orthodox
+long-lost one--"It is!--It is not!--It is!--Let me clasp it to my
+other cushion!" "Toi mon fils chéri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes
+loisirs!"
+
+[Illustration: FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.]
+
+The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued from
+oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively doings
+on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's mamma," he
+says, "had worked a very pretty cap for Felix, and Felix had it on the
+morning after his birthday, and Felix found that though the cap was
+very pretty, it made him look very seedy."
+
+[Illustration: "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.]
+
+In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the friends
+assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had come together
+in the evening, much in the same spirit that had led them under my
+windows in the morning, with a brass band and an enormous bouquet of
+cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers. There, on the left, is Van Lerius
+with his hands in his pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans,
+Bource, and all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud
+bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good fellows!
+It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and contemplate du
+Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded capacity of enjoyment. I can
+see him taking points that fell flat with the other fellows. Quite
+a pleasure, too, to think of Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald
+head, of the tall and the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face.
+
+Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed, and
+the whirligig of time has been revolving with unfailing regularity,
+dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated, some to stand, some
+to fall. What has become of the threads of friendship, picked up at
+the studio or the café, perhaps whilst puzzling over the chess-board,
+or when harmonising in four-part song? Golden threads; some destined
+to be spun out and to become solidly intertwined; others to be
+hopelessly entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable
+Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon companions
+of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and everywhere--perhaps nowhere!
+Some I see trotting briskly along the high-road of life, others
+dragging wearily through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting
+under a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of
+dates, fixed just above their heads.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+I well remember a certain "barrière" that protected the level crossing
+just outside the Malines Station. It was but an ordinary piece of
+hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier and I, can never forget it;
+for, as we stood by its side we vowed that come what might, we would
+never travel along that line and past the old gate without recalling
+that summer evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days.
+
+It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our
+never-to-be-forgotten aliases--Rag and Bobtail. We had chanced upon a
+chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that old barrière, and some
+fortuitous circumstance having revealed the fact that his initials
+were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him Tag. Out of that very naturally
+grew the further development: Rag, Tag, and Bobtail.
+
+T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably taller
+than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to secure him
+the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at the shrine
+of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the man of
+six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman of commanding
+presence, his appreciation of size culminating in the love of "Chang,"
+that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt to admire, as we followed
+his career through the volumes of the immortal Weekly, presided over
+by Toby and his master.
+
+I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he took it
+much or often, but he gave one the impression that whatever others
+might do when amongst the benighted foreigner, he, for one, would not
+let a good old English custom drop into disuse. Looking at Tag one
+intuitively felt that his father before him had taken his moderate
+glass of W. and W., and that, if he married and had sons, they would
+do likewise. I do not think that he was particularly fond of art
+or artists, unless inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was
+engaged, or, at least, he was generally just about to be engaged, in
+some business, and whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence
+operations, he would settle down to an expectant present. The golden
+opportunity he was looking for was plainly visible on his horizon, but
+it had a way of remaining stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's
+nature to move unless under great pressure, the two never met.
+
+In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a good deal
+with us when we were out and about, bent on storming the world, or
+climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the looking on, the parts
+thus being distributed to our mutual satisfaction. He was always
+pleasantly acquiescent, and had the rare gift of making himself
+useless agreeably; a common bond of interest we had in the Colorado
+claro and oscuro, whether the fair or dark, applied to the friendly
+weed or the still more friendly fair sex.
+
+He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote to us from
+Paris, when he says:--
+
+    "Since my arrival here my notes of what I have to do represent
+    what I have not done, and if it be true that the infernal
+    regions are paved with good intentions, I shall be received
+    on my arrival by a deputation of souls to thank me for my
+    contribution to the pavement."
+
+[Illustration: RAG.]
+
+[Illustration: BOBTAIL.]
+
+There are sketches in which Tag's eloquence is confined to one
+exclamation, "Matilda!" But whether that name was coupled with present
+felicity or future hopes I do not recollect. But du Maurier's lines
+describe him and our chumship much better than any words of mine could
+do. He says:--
+
+"To BOBTAIL.
+
+  Oh, fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint
+  All lazy beggars like me--"
+
+  "In the sunshine of April, the April of life,
+    You and I and our Tag make three;
+  And few will deny that for such close chums
+    A queer set of fellows are we.
+
+  For I walk slowly, and you walk fast,
+    And Tag lies down (not to fall);
+  _You_ think of the Present, _I_ think of the Past,
+    And Tag thinks of nothing at all.
+
+  Yet who shall be lucky, and who shall be rich?
+    Whether both, neither, one, or all three;
+  Is a mystery which, Dame Fortune, the witch,
+    Tells neither Tag, Bobtail, or me!
+
+(RAG)."
+
+The portraits of Rag and Bobtail head the page. A space was left for
+Tag's, but never filled.
+
+_Apropos_ of plans and prospects on Tag's distant horizon, I find a
+passage in one of his letters, dated November, 1857, which is well
+worth recording. I quote it to give myself and my fellow Europeans an
+opportunity of rejoicing that Tag's scheme belonged to those that were
+not to be realised. It runs thus:--
+
+    "As du Maurier's eye, though better, will, most probably,
+    not allow him to resume his profession as a painter, we have
+    determined to try our fortune together in Australia, and
+    mean to start from here early in February. He hopes to obtain
+    employment by drawing sketches, caricatures, &c., for the
+    Melbourne _Punch_, and other illustrated papers. You know how
+    eminently suited he is for that kind of work, and we hear that
+    an artist of talent of that description is much wanted out
+    there, and would be sure to do exceedingly well. I, of course,
+    do not intend to start in that line, but hope to be able to
+    support myself for the first few years, after which I shall
+    establish myself in business on my own account, and I trust,
+    with luck, I may return home in the course of from ten to
+    fifteen years, if not with immense riches, at all events with
+    enough to enable me to pass the remainder of my 'old age' in
+    peace and comfort."
+
+[Illustration: "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+HANG MYSELF, I WONDER."]
+
+Did Tag ever go, I wonder? Did he come back, and has he perhaps
+been enjoying his "old age" somewhere over here for the last thirty
+years?--I wish you would say what _has_ become of you, my dear Tag.
+I'm sure we should be chums again, if you're anything like the dear
+old stick-in-the-mud of former days! Don't you recollect that sketch
+of Rag's? I had nearly forgotten to mention it, the one with the three
+ropes of life. I am climbing ahead with fiendish energy. Rag follows,
+steadily ascending, weighted as he is with a treasure, a box marked
+"Mrs. Rag, with care," and your noble form is squatting on the floor,
+a glass of the best blend at your feet, and a cigar you are enjoying
+from which rises the legend that makes you say, "What the deuce am I
+to do with this confounded rope? Hang myself, I wonder?" Nonsense, to
+be sure; but do come and tell me what you _have_ done with the rope,
+or say where I can find you still squatting.
+
+That music of a certain spontaneous kind, the music within us which we
+were ever longing to bring to the surface, was a bond of union between
+du Maurier and myself, I have already mentioned; but that bond was to
+be greatly strengthened by the music that great musicians on more than
+one occasion lavished on us. First came Louis Brassin, the pianist. He
+had studied under Moscheles at the Conservatorio of Leipsic, the city
+of Bach and Mendelssohn fame; and there, from the days of his boyhood,
+he had belonged to the little circle of intimates who frequently
+gathered around the master at his house.
+
+When, a few years later, he came to Belgium on a concert tour, he and
+I found no difficulty in taking up the old friendship contracted in my
+father's house, just where we had left it. The boy had become the man,
+the student had developed into the artist and thorough musician. He
+was the boonest of boon companions, and his jokes were so broad that
+they often reminded one, in their crudeness and their rudeness, of
+certain passages in Mozart's early letters. To say that he spoke
+French with a German accent à la Svengali would be putting it very
+mildly; Teutonic gutturals would most unceremoniously invade the
+sister language; d's and t's, b's and p's would ever change places, as
+they are made to do in some parts of the Fatherland. With all that,
+he rejoiced in a delightful fluency of speech, conveying quaint and
+original thought. There was something decidedly interesting about
+Brassin's looks, but his figure gave one the impression of having been
+very carelessly put together; when he walked his head went back on his
+shoulders, and his hat went back on his head; his long arms dangled,
+pendulum-like, by his sides, while his lanky legs, dragging along
+anyhow, were ever lagging behind one another. But when he opened the
+piano and put hands and feet to keys and pedal, he was not the same
+individual. He would turn on nerve and muscle-power, and would hurl
+avalanches of music and torrents of notes at his audience till he, in
+his turn, was overwhelmed with thunders of applause. And those were
+the days, we must remember, when but few men could play at a greater
+rate than twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; when grand pianos were
+not yet ironclad and armour-plated, or had learnt proudly to display
+the maker's name on their broadside when they went forth to do battle
+on the concert field.
+
+[Illustration: COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS.]
+
+Brassin used to draw inane caricatures of himself, which he would
+present to us with a triumphant laugh of immoderate calibre. I have
+preserved some of these, but decidedly prefer du Maurier's rendering
+of our common friend. In the accompanying drawing he shows him at the
+piano, entertaining us on "A rainy day."
+
+"Ah! Felix, amico mio," he says, "may thy room be always as jolly,
+thy coffee be ever so sweet, as on that happy morning! May Brassin's
+fingers be ever as brilliant and inspired! May Tag be ever as lazy,
+and with equal satisfaction to himself, and may I never be blinder!
+Amen."
+
+That sketch admirably pourtrays the lankiness and flabbiness of
+Brassin's figure, contrasting as it did with the strength of the wrist
+and the grip of the fingers. He was certainly a fine subject for du
+Maurier, whom I always looked upon as a sort of vivisector of music
+and musicians, of their methods and their moods. A brilliant career
+awaited Louis Brassin, but it was to be suddenly and unexpectedly cut
+off. He died some ten years ago at the age of forty-four.
+
+In 1858 my father came on a visit to Antwerp with my mother and my
+youngest sister, Clara. Wherever my father took up his abode, even
+temporarily, a grand piano would in the natural course of events
+gravitate towards him, and a select circle of art lovers would soon be
+grouped around it. Amongst the friends in the Antwerp circle were--Van
+Lerius, Tadema, Baron Leys, Heyermans, and Bource. My sister at that
+time was a bright and happy creature, not long out of her teens,
+full of hopes--alas! never to be realised, and of talents never to be
+matured. The large dark eyes--they seemed the gift of her godmother,
+the famous Malibran--reflected the artist's soul, and a grand soprano
+voice spoke its powerful language. Du Maurier and she were soon on a
+brother and sisterly footing, and they ever remained so.
+
+[Illustration: CLARA MOSCHELES.]
+
+Of the pleasant evenings we of the circle spent together I recall one
+in particular. My sister had been singing one song after another;
+my father was engaged in an animated conversation with Stefani,
+the pianist, on the relative merits of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Du
+Maurier and I had been sitting at the farther end of the room, talking
+of his eyes. At that time one doctor held out hopes; another, a great
+authority, had considered it his painful duty not to conceal the
+truth from his patient, and had, with much unction and the necessary
+complement of professional phraseology, prepared him for the worst.
+The sight of one eye had gone, that of the other would follow. Those
+were anxious days, both for him and for his friends; but, whatever
+he felt, he could talk about his trouble with perfect equanimity,
+and I often wondered how quietly he took it, and how cheerfully he
+would tell me that he was "fearfully depressed." That evening I had
+been putting the chances of a speedy recovery before him, and making
+predictions based, I am bound to admit, on nothing more substantial
+than my ardent hopes. But du Maurier was too much of a philosopher to
+be satisfied with such encouragement as I could give, and said: "No, I
+had better face the enemy and be prepared for the worst. If it comes,
+you see, my dear fellow, there is Nature's law of compensation, and
+I firmly believe that one cannot lose one faculty without being
+compensated by some great gain elsewhere. I suppose one gets to see
+more inside as things grow darker outside. If one can't paint, one
+must do something else--write perhaps; that is, as long as one can,
+and then, if the steam accumulates, and one wants a safety valve to
+let it off, dictate." Happily, to this day he writes, and need not
+have recourse to dictation.
+
+When we joined our friends we found Van Lerius and Heyermans had been
+pressed into the service, and were making sketches for my sister's
+album. Du Maurier took up a pencil, and, with a few characteristic
+touches, drew that sister's eyes. "Quand je les vois," he wrote
+underneath, "j'oublie les miens. (Reflexion d'un futur aveugle.) When
+I see them I forget my own. (Reflections of a man going blind.)"
+
+Soon the main business of the evening was resumed. Was it Beethoven's
+sonata for piano and violin, or a mighty improvisation on classical
+themes that came first? I do not recollect; but I remember that du
+Maurier's rendering of Balfe's "When other lips and other hearts,"
+with my scratch accompaniment, was warmly greeted by all lips and
+hearts present.
+
+When these pleasant evenings had come to an end, the friendly
+intercourse was not allowed to drop, and so a number of sketches by
+her new friends found their way into Miss Clara's album.
+
+In the following winter, when I left on a short visit to Leipsic, he
+sent her a few lines through me. I quote from his letter because
+the wording is peculiar, and illustrates his capacity for expressing
+himself in a language that he had to evolve from his inner
+consciousness:--
+
+"Herr Rag schickt zu Fräulein Moscheles _sein_ empfehlung und _ihren_
+bruder; es wird höflicht gebeten das sie wird die sach reciprokiren,
+und in fünftzen dägen _ihr_ empfehlung und _seinen_ freund zuruck
+schicken."
+
+For the benefit of those whose inner consciousness is not in touch
+with the above, I give the English version:--
+
+"Mr. Rag sends _his_ greeting and _her_ brother to Miss Moscheles, and
+kindly requests her to reciprocate the proceeding in a fortnight by
+returning _her_ greeting and _his_ friend."
+
+[Illustration: "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+UND IHREN BRUDER."]
+
+[Illustration: LIX.]
+
+When I think how easily and spontaneously such sketches dropped from
+his pen, I am reminded of a passage in one of Mendelssohn's letters to
+my mother; he sends her the _Mailied_ and says: "This morning a song
+came to me. I really must write it down for you." So, too, from the
+first the pen-and-ink compositions came to du Maurier. His talent
+manifested itself not only in a desire to illustrate this or that
+incident or adventure, but also in his inexhaustible capacity for
+making something out of nothing, and as the nothing was never lacking,
+he might well say: "Dear Bobtail, I will never write without sending
+my compliments to thine album." His rendering of "Cher Lix," for
+instance, takes the shape of a graceful monogram, or diplogram, or
+whatever I ought to call a combination of our two profiles and my
+name.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He starts a short missive with a sketch of himself seated in his
+trunk, pipe in mouth, and says: "Dear Bobtail, I write to you out of
+sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to pack up for the next
+half-hour." Or he draws himself looking over my shoulder whilst I am
+writing to my sister and puts the supposed context of my letter:--
+
+[Illustration: AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----]
+
+"Bobtail writes (in German of course):
+
+"I won't write any more, for there's an indiscreet fellow looking over
+my ----"
+
+"_Rag_. It's not true, I swear. (For Miss Clara.)"
+
+[Illustration: DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN.]
+
+Another time he wants me to send him some brushes and various other
+painting materials he enumerates: "Oh, and a little thing like this
+for oil to do the thing cheesy." He depicts himself quite elated; his
+eyes seemed so much better that he had once more resumed work in the
+studio of his friend Goyers. "Gruss from maternal and self," he ends;
+"ganz hertzlich; come soon, or write soon, or do something soon, hang
+it.--Thy RAG, jusqu' à la mort."
+
+[Illustration: "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI."]
+
+Monsieur Staps, Sous-Chef of the "Guides," the best military band in
+Brussels, was a friend of ours. He had invited us to one of the famous
+Concerts du Conservatoire, a treat in anticipation of which du Maurier
+at once takes to the pen, and shows us in classical garments and
+dignified attitudes listening to the "young men of the Conservatorio."
+"Sketch represents," he says "Claudius Felix et Publius Busso, cum
+centurione Guidorum, audientes juvenes Conservatorioni, A.D. CCLVIII."
+The "Busso" derived from his full name--George Louis Palmella Busson
+du Maurier.
+
+In striking contrast with the last drawing is the next. Here we are
+decidedly anything but conventional in our attire, as he depicts us
+in "Double-bedded room, Brussels. Time 11 a.m. (train starts 11.20).
+Bobtail's face being rather smutty, he washes it, and Rag's boots
+being rather tight, he puts them on at leisure, during which process
+he has time to smoke three pipes. _Bobtail_. Bub-bub-bub-bub ... whew
+... pouf!... _Rag_. How many?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A favourite theme of his was his supposed inability to shine on
+occasions when I had introduced him to friends of mine, and was
+particularly anxious to show him off to advantage, and then, again,
+the unrelenting fate that would swiftly overtake him if he ventured
+to put himself forward. I need not say that the inability and the
+discomfiture existed only in his imagination, for in all circles he
+was ever appreciated and admired. But he would have it otherwise, and
+pourtrays us side by side with the legend--
+
+[Illustration: "The height of enjoyment. Rag thinking of his eyes, in
+a pair of tight boots, with Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever,
+you stupid muff!'"]
+
+Another drawing shows what happened when for once in a way he presumed
+to accept the homages of the fair.
+
+"One fine morninge, earlie, at ye Café de la Plage, Blankenberghe, ye
+celebrated Rag, deeming himself alone, treateth himself to a private
+performance of ye Padre furioso e figlia infelice, in imitatione of
+his illustrious friende, Felix Bobtailo. Presentlie a voice exclaimeth
+behind him, 'Monsieur, permettez moi de vous féliciter,' and a ladie
+politelie maketh him complimente on his talente. Rag replieth that
+she must not be surprised thereat, as hys life has been spent among
+ye great musicians, and that therefore he can scarcelie helpe being a
+consummate musician himselfe. Shortly after as he lighteth hys cigarre
+at ye barre, he enquireth bumptiously, 'Who might that good ladie be?'
+'She is the prima-donna of the Munich Opera, Monsieur.' Whereupon ye
+soul of ye humiliated Rag sinketh into hys bootes, and he retireth for
+ever under a perpetual extinguisher.
+
+"Ye hero of ye above unfortunate adventure presenteth hys compliments
+to Miss Clara Moscheles, and beggeth she will deigne to accepte
+ye sketche in acknowledgment of ye last box of 'acidulated
+lemon-flavoured droppes' entrusted to her brother's care (need he
+remark that they have not yet reached their destination).
+
+"Miss Clara is invited to observe how cunninglie ye profile of Rag is
+made to imitate that of her talented brother."
+
+[Illustration: YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE.]
+
+Du Maurier's stay in Blankenberghe was but short. He soon went to
+Düsseldorf to put himself under the treatment of a famous oculist,
+Hofrath de Leeuwe, who resided not far from there at Gräfrath. He
+wrote, in high spirits: "Spent yesterday in Gräfrath; jolly place,
+lots of beauties, plenty of singing and sketching and that sort of
+thing, you know. Long walks in beautiful valleys, most delightful. The
+fact is, I'm so beastly merry since I've been here that I don't think
+I'm quite sane, and altogether only want your periodical visits and
+permission to have my fling on Saturday nights to be in heaven. Doctor
+says he'll do me good; have to go to Gräfrath once a week. Ça me bote
+joliment. Good-bye, my old. Thine ever
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He had met some old acquaintances and fraternised with some English
+and American artists, had got into the swim of Gräfrath society, such
+as it was, and was soon placed on a pedestal, whilst sundry beauties
+sat at his feet and, to the best of my belief, sighed. "They all want
+me to make etchings of the little can-cans and lick-spittlings going
+on here. Splendid study; shall think about it. Carry novel, of course,
+adjourned _sine die_; haven't got time just now--you know what a
+fellow I am. Just got her letter; very naïve and amusing--but don't
+tell her so, or else she will pose for that and spoil it. Here is a
+little drawing for you. Do all honour to it, since it has met with a
+little ovation here."
+
+[Illustration: AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR.
+
+"SHE. REALLY I DON'T SEE THE SLIGHTEST MOTE IN YOUR EYES."
+
+"HE. NO, BUT I CAN SEE THE BEAMS IN YOURS."]
+
+He calls it "a new adaptation from the New Testament." He and a
+charming "she" sit waiting their turn at the Hofrath's door. _He_
+is looking into her eyes and _she_ into his. "Really I don't see the
+slightest mote in your eyes," says she. "No, but I can see the beams
+in yours," he replies.
+
+[Illustration: "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!"]
+
+Did du Maurier ever attempt to shave anybody, I wonder? According
+to one of the sketches he sent me from Düsseldorf he did, and was so
+engaged on a blind man Kennedy, when a Captain Marius comes on the
+scene and says, in discreet whisper and with much concern, "I say,
+governor, mind you don't gash his throat as you did that poor old
+Spaniard's! (_Out loud_) How d'ye do, Kennedy?"
+
+The same Mr. Kennedy figures once more, when, unaware of the presence
+of the captain, he discreetly informs the professor that Captain
+Marius Blueblast "is na' but a sinfu' blackguard."
+
+[Illustration: MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS
+THE PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+BLACKGUARD."]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A portrait he drew of the doctor was a great success. "I have done the
+old cock's portrait stunningly," he says; "nine crosses of the Legion
+of Honour, &c. Not a sou into my pocket; all for poor-box. Fancy a
+fellow like me making presents to the poor-box (_vide_ sketch)! But as
+the portrait will be very much spilt about (_répandu_), I may fish a
+stray order or two. I have followed your advice for a whole week and
+done a magnificent Framboisy. Shall not attempt to go on until you
+are here to give me another stirring-up. Am going to Antwerp next week
+(always am). Shall you be moving too? Journey together--great fun.
+Take care of my purse and passport, and see my trunks are locked."
+
+[Illustration: MEETING IN DÜSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF
+THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:--
+
+  "Dark was the sun! Heavy the clouds on the cliffs of Oithona--when
+  the fair-headed son of the Maurialva crossed his claymore with
+  the stern dark-browed Bobthailva and swore friendship on the names
+  of Carry and Damask."]
+
+I was moving, and as du Maurier kept on being about to go to Antwerp,
+I went to pay him a flying visit at Düsseldorf on my way to Paris. We
+sat into the small hours of the morning (as he depicts us), talking
+of the past, present, and future, a long-necked Rhine-wine bottle and
+two green glasses beside us, our hopes and aspirations rising with
+the cloud that curled from my ever-glowing cigar. We talked till
+his fertile imagination took us across the sea, and "Ragmar of the
+Maurialva and Bobthailva, the son of Moscheles, swore eternal amity on
+their native heath."
+
+Damask was another beauty whom we appreciated, perhaps all the more
+because we knew she was dying of consumption.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Paris I was probably absorbed in some work I had in hand and must
+have neglected du Maurier, for he writes urging me to answer by return
+of post and give an account of myself. He had been visited, he says,
+by an alarming nightmare, which he forthwith sketches for my benefit.
+Carry, the Circe, had captured the lion. The noble beast--that was
+me--had succumbed to the wiles of the enchantress, and submitted
+tamely to being combed and brushed and to having his claws clipped
+by her hand. Like birds of a feather, so do lions of a name,
+flock together. And so another noble beast--that was he--is seen
+approaching, presumably to claim his share of the combing and clipping
+and of whatever other favours may be forthcoming.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Another time when, I suppose, I was again letting him wait for an
+answer, he writes from Düsseldorf: "DEAR BOBTAIL,--Est-ce que tu
+te donnes le genre de m'oublier par hazard? I have been expecting a
+letter from you every day, running thus: 'DEAR RAG,--Come to Paris
+_immediately_, to illustrate thirty-six periodical papers which I have
+got for you. In haste, Bobtail.' My old pal, Tom Armstrong, is here,
+working hard; eyes the same as ever. Write soon and tell all about
+that portrait. Düsseldorf rencontre was jolly." The letter is headed
+by a drawing representing me soaring heavenwards, whilst he, chained
+to the spot, is philosophically consulting the cards on his prospects
+of release.
+
+[Illustration] Then comes a postscript: "Going in for this sort of
+thing."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Will you come old fellow and be
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I suppose I answered saying that I only put off writing till I had
+mustered the full complement of periodicals. If I was in a prophetic
+mood I may have added that it was all right, and that very shortly
+thirty-six editors would be clamouring for his work, and perhaps
+thirty-six States hallooing for him to come over _immediately_. Hoping
+to be punch'd at an early date, I probably remained his, &c., &c.
+
+The early date came, for, before his final return to England, we met
+once more in Antwerp and Malines. And that takes me back to Carry.
+She was changed to her advantage, so, at least, the world of Malines
+thought. We were not quite so sure that the change would prove
+altogether to her advantage. She had been quite pretty enough before,
+and we thought she could well have done without developing further
+physical attractions. She had always known how to use her eyes, not
+unfrequently shedding their beneficent light on two persons at the
+same time, and we considered that that number should not be exceeded.
+But now their activity seemed daily increasing, and it was not without
+concern that we noticed in her a certain restlessness and a growing
+tendency to discuss with the serpent questions relating to the
+acquisition of prohibited apples. After a while, and perhaps in
+consequence of the good advice we gave her, she sobered down and
+surprised us by her docility; but at best her moods were uncertain and
+she puzzled us much.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Now, Bobtail," said Rag, as we walked along the sober old streets
+of Malines, discussing the state of Carry's mind and heart. (He has
+omitted the streets, but has put us into our very best mediæval suit.)
+"Now, Bobtail, what do you think? Is she in love? And if so, with
+whom?"
+
+"She may be, or she may be not," said Bobtail, with oracular
+discretion; "but, if she is, it can only be with one of us. She would
+not waste her sentiment on a native whilst we were within reach."
+
+"But which of us is it?" asked Rag, somewhat alarmed.
+
+"I know not; but I hope neither," answered the oracle thus appealed
+to; "but the state of her mind, I believe, is this: If she were to
+marry you, she would fall in love with me; and if she were to marry
+me, she would fall in love with you."
+
+This dictum must have impressed du Maurier, for it started him on
+a series of drawings, with accompanying text in illustration of it.
+There were to be two volumes. The first, in which I figure as the
+husband, was rapidly produced; the second, in which he was to be the
+husband, never saw the light of day. It was shelved _sine die_, a
+proceeding I always thought particularly unfair, as he never gave _me_
+a chance of being loved. I am compensated, however, by the possession
+of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or "Cari-catures," as
+they are called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  "If Carry were to marry one of us,
+  I'd give thee any odds she would be safe,
+  O Rag, to love the other--"
+
+      (_Shakespere_. "_Two Swells of Antwerp_.")
+
+"Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story illustrates
+the truth of the poet's words. His points will be so much better
+understood later on, when some of the problems connected with our
+matrimonial laws have been solved, that it would be a pity to publish
+them prematurely. Suffice it to show how Félix and Georges produced
+the portrait of Picciola. "Félix put all his talent and Georges all
+his good will into it, for, once completed, Picciola was to select
+a husband from the two suitors. After much cogitation she decides
+for Félix, whilst offering her friendship to Georges, who seems but
+moderately satisfied with this arrangement; and then, when husband and
+wife leave for distant countries, Georges, who cannot bear the thought
+of being parted from his dear Picciola, enters the service of the
+young couple and accompanies them on their honeymoon." This mythical
+journey gives the author opportunities for the subtle psychological
+analysis of a young lady's heart, strongly inclined to revolt against
+some of the conventions laid down by Society for its regulation.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA.]
+
+We had fondly hoped we might escort and protect her on the thorny
+path of life, as pertinently shown in the drawing,[3] where we are
+all three going along, our arms and hands fraternally intertwined and
+linked together in perfect symmetry, as if therewith to tie the knot
+of friendship and make it fast for ever and a day.
+
+[Footnote 3: See Frontispiece.]
+
+[Illustration: "ON THEIR HONEYMOON."]
+
+But it was not to be. A big wave intervened to separate us, and swept
+away all traces of the road before us. Poor Carry! Yes, she had a
+story. Sad. Bright. Then sad again. First she gave to Amor what was
+Amor's, and then to Hymen what was Hymen's. She tasted of the apple
+her friend the serpent had told her so much about. Then--"la femme
+à une chute est rare comme le Niagara"--and there are more apples
+than one in the Garden of Eden--she tried another; such a bad one
+unfortunately. It was a wonder it didn't poison her, body and soul,
+but it didn't. There was a moment when the Angel with the flaming
+sword threatened to cast her adrift, and it would have fared badly
+with her had not a helping hand come to save her. But sound as she
+was at the core, and true, she rallied and rose again to new life and
+unhoped-for happiness. It was a young doctor who came to the rescue;
+a mere boy he seemed to look at; but a man he was in deed and word. He
+worked hard and walked fast; he defied convention and challenged fate.
+With a stout heart he laboured to raise Carry to the level of his
+affections, and with a strong hand he tightened his hold upon her. He
+loved her passionately, devotedly, and she, clinging to him as to the
+instrument of her salvation, gradually regained her better self, and,
+slowly but surely, learnt to find in her own heart the greatest of
+treasures that woman can bestow upon man. But he was a Southerner of
+the French meridional type, excitable and impulsive, and, so, alas!
+he was jealous of Carry's northern friends and snapped the thread
+asunder that bound her to them. We only knew, and that we learnt in
+a roundabout way, that she was the happiest little wife in Paris.
+Once, and only once, she wrote to us, to tell us how complete was
+her happiness. A crowning glory had come; a little glory to nurse
+and fondle, to cry over--tears of joy; to smile to--the prettiest,
+foolishest of mother's smiles; to pray for and to worship from the
+bottom of her little blossoming soul. It was not till three years
+later that I was in Paris and succeeded in picking up the thread of
+Carry's story. Hale and hearty, overflowing with health and happiness,
+the young doctor had gone to his work at the hospital. He came
+home blood-poisoned, to die in his wife's arms. It was a case of
+self-sacrifice in the cause of science, of heroic devotion to a
+fellow-creature. And the young widow was left alone again, with none
+to weep over (tears of anguish this time) but the little glory, who,
+poor thing, could only wonder, but not soothe. What can have become
+of Carry once more cast adrift in Paris to fight the battle of life in
+this hard ever love-making world?
+
+We never knew.
+
+Back to England. The time had come when--
+
+  "Who was to be lucky and who to be rich,
+  Who'd get to the top of the tree;
+  Was a mystery which
+  Dame Fortune, the witch,
+  _Was_ to tell du Maurier and me."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+What with the boxing-gloves and one thing and another, he had been
+"getting English again by degrees." In a drawing he shows us how he
+is going through the process arm-in-arm with his old friend, Tom
+Armstrong, now the Art-Director of that very English institution, the
+South Kensington Museum. Armstrong and T.R. Lamont, the man who to
+this day bears such a striking resemblance to our friend the Laird,
+had presented du Maurier with a complete edition of Edgar Allan Poe's
+works. His appreciation of that author is expressed in a letter which
+he addressed to Armstrong, and it needs not much reading between the
+lines to gather what was the literary diet best suited to his taste.
+It is amusing, too, to notice the little shadows cast here and there
+by coming events.
+
+(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time being,
+synonymous with George du Maurier.)
+
+  "Gulielmus Barlow, Thomasino Armstrong,
+  Whom we hope is 'gaillardement' getting along
+  And salubrious, ave!
+
+                     You'll wonder, I ween,
+  At Barlow's turning topsy-tur--poet I mean.
+  I take odds you'll exclaim, 'twixt a grunt and a stare,
+  'Gottferdummi' the beggar's gone mad, I declare,
+  And his wits must have followed his 'peeper'--not so;
+  He will give you the wherefore, will William Barlow--
+  Viz: he's so seedy and blue, he's so deucedly triste,
+  He's so d----d out of sorts, he's so d----d out of tune,
+  That for mere consolation he cannot resist
+  The temptation of holding with Tommy commune.
+  Then that _he_ should be bothered alone, isn't fair,
+  So he'll just bother _you_ a bit, pour se distraire,
+  This will partly account for the milk--then the fact is
+  That some heavy swell says that it's deuced good practice,
+  And then it's a natural consequence, too,
+  Of the classical culture he's just been put through.
+  I'll explain: T'other day the maternal did say,
+  'You are sadly deficient in reading, Bill; nay
+  Do not wrinkle your forehead and turn up your nose
+  (That elegant feature of William Barlow's!)
+  You've read Thackeray, Dickens, I know; but it's fit
+  You should study the _classical_ authors a bit.
+  Heaven knows when your sight will be valid again,
+  You may throw down the pencil and take up the pen,
+  And you cannot have too many strings to your bow.'
+  --'A-a-amen!' says young William to Mrs. Barlow.
+
+  So we're treated (our feelings we needn't define)
+  To a beastly slow book called the 'Fall and Decline'
+  By a fellow called Gibbon, be d----d to him; then
+  Comes the 'Esprit des lois et des moeurs,' from the pen
+  Of a chap hight _Voltaire_--un pédant--qui je crois
+  Ne se fichait pas mal et des moeurs et des lois.
+  After which just to vary the pleasures, _Rousseau_
+  By Emile--no: Emile by _Rousseau_? Gad! I know
+  That which ever it be it's infernally slow,
+  And I'm glad Billy's neither Emile nor Rousseau--
+  Such my fate is to listen to, longing to slope--
+  Then come horrid long epics of Dryden and Pope,
+  Which I mentally swear a big oath I'll confine
+  To the tombs of the Capulets, every line--
+  Not but what the old beggars may do in their way,
+  Gad! Uncommonly fine soporifics are they;
+  But they seem after Tennyson, Shelley, and Poe
+  Just a trifle _too_ Rosy for Billy Barlow--
+  Oh, dear Raggedy, oh!
+  Ulalume and Ænone for William Barlow.
+
+  Erst, they're short. Then they breathe in their mystical tone
+  An essence, a spirit, a draught which alone
+  Can content Billy's lust, for the weird and unknown
+  (Billy's out of his depth) they've an undefined sense
+  Of the infinite 'mersed in their sorrow intense
+  (Billy's sinking! A rope! Some one quick! Damn it! hence
+  That mystical feeling so sweetly profound
+  Which weaves round the senses a spell (Billy's drowned)
+  (Here run for the drags of the Royal Humane!)
+  A mystical feeling, half rapture, half pain,
+  Such as moves in sweet melodies, such as entrances
+  In Chopin's 'Etudes,' and in Schubert's 'Romances.'
+
+  Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'!
+  Have you ever heard these pretty decently played?
+  If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe
+  That a treat most delicious you have in reserve.
+  Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of clover,
+  While Stefani rapidly fingers them over,
+  Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over.
+  Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream
+  Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme,
+  Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme!
+  Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem,
+  In their sad wild unresting irregular flow
+  Just expressly concocted for William Barlow.
+  Oh! dear Raggedy, oh!
+  Why, they ravish the heart, sir, of Billy Barlow."
+
+Du Maurier's stay on the Continent had come to a close some time
+before mine, and to that circumstance I owe several letters in which
+he speaks of his first experiences in London. He revelled in the
+metamorphosis he was going through, and illustrated the past and the
+present for my better comprehension. There on one side of the Channel
+he shows the dejected old lion of Malines gnawing his tobaccoless clay
+pipe, and then on the other the noble beast stalking along jauntily
+with tail erect and havannah alight. He wrote in high spirits:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    "DEAR BOBTAIL,--I need not tell you how very jolly it was to
+    get your letter and to hear good news of you. My reason for
+    not writing was that I intended to make my position before
+    giving of my news to anybody. I was just funky and blue about
+    it at first, but fortunately I was twigged almost immediately,
+    and, barring my blessed idleness, am getting on splendaciously
+    just now. Lots of my things have been out. I'm going in for
+    becoming a swell.
+
+    "How strange to think of such a change. I'm leading the
+    merriest of lives, and only hope it will last. Living with
+    Henley, No. 85, Newman Street; very jolly and comfortable.
+    Chumming with all the old Paris fellows again, all of them
+    going ahead. There's Whistler is already one of the great
+    celebrities here--Poynter getting on. This is a very jolly
+    little village, and I wish you were over here. They do make
+    such a fuss with an agreeable fellow like you or me, for
+    instance. But I suppose Paris is just as jolly in its way.
+    My ideas of Paris are all Bohème, quartier latin, &c., et si
+    c'était à recommencer, ma foi je crois que je dirais 'zut.'
+    This is a hurried and absurd letter to write to an old pal
+    like you, but I hardly ever have time for a line--out late
+    every night and make use of what little daylight there is in
+    Newman Street to draw. 'S'il faisait au moins clair de Lune
+    pendant le jour dans ce sacré pays.' I daresay I shall treat
+    myself to a trip over to Paris as soon as the weather is
+    jollier. I intend to go abroad this summer to do some etchings
+    'qui seront aux pommes.' Is there any chance whatever of your
+    coming over here before? You mustn't form your opinion of my
+    performances by what you may happen to see, as half of what I
+    do is spoiled by bad engraving (that's why I intend to etch),
+    and what I have done, bar one or two things, are merely little
+    chic sketches for money. I have many plans; among others I
+    intend to bring out a series in _Punch_, with which I shall
+    take peculiar care--something quite original. I think you
+    would precious soon get more portraits than you could paint
+    here, but if you are getting on so well in Paris, of course it
+    would be madness to leave. But I do not like the idea of your
+    not being one of us--such a band of brothers full of jolly
+    faults that dovetail beautifully. It was quite a freak of mine
+    coming over here; I did it against everybody's advice--came
+    over with a ten-pound note and made the rest. 'Your friend
+    Bobtail seems to be the only man who had no doubt of your
+    talent,' writes my mother. 'Enfin c'est prouvé que je suis au
+    moins bon a quelque chose.' Do you go much into the world?
+    I go knocking about as happily as possible, singing and
+    smoking cigars everywhere. Jimmy Whistler and I go 'tumbling'
+    together, as Thackeray says. Would you were here to tumble
+    with us! Enfin, mon bon, écris moi vite."
+
+When at last I too returned to London I was privileged to take my
+humble share in the "tumbling," as also in the steady process that was
+gradually to wean us from Bohemia. We tumbled pretty regularly into
+the Pamphilon, a restaurant within a stone's throw of Oxford Circus,
+of the familiar type that exhibits outside its door a bill of fare
+with prices appended, to be studied by those who count their shillings
+and pence as we did. We had got beyond the days when no wines are sour
+and when tough meat passes muster, if there is only plenty of it; we
+wanted a sound dinner, and we got it at the Pamphilon; to wind up we
+adjourned to the coffee-room and talked and read and smoked.
+
+Stacey Marks, Poynter, Jimmy Whistler, and Charles Keene were among
+the crew, and others not so well known to fame. Pleasant hours those
+and gemüthliche, as the Germans say; how different the after-dinner
+clay pipe or cheap weed of those times to the post-prandial havannah
+we now complacently whiff at our friend's Mæcenas' hospitable table!
+Yes, things have changed, my dear Rag, since the day we were paying
+our bill, and you addressed the waiter with superb affability: "Here,
+Charles, is a penny for you. I know it isn't much, but I can't afford
+more."
+
+It is hard to fancy anything less like Bohemia than Regent Street,
+but a little incident that occurred as I walked down that busy
+thoroughfare one afternoon recalls the best traditions of the land in
+which practical jokes abound. I was going along without any definite
+aim, killing time and gathering wool, flanéing, in fact; perhaps there
+was a touch of the foreigner about me, for I had only lately returned
+from abroad; anyway I suddenly found myself singled out as a fit
+subject to be victimised. I felt a hand stealthily sliding into my
+pocket; on the spur of the moment I grasped that hand in as much of an
+iron grip as I could muster. Then--I hardly know why--I waited quite
+a number of seconds before I turned round. When I did, it was du
+Maurier's face that I beheld, blanched with terror. Those seconds
+had been ages to him. Good heavens! had he made a mistake? Was it not
+Bobtail's but another man's hand that was clutching his wrist? Thank
+Heaven, it was Bobtail's!
+
+There never was an occasion, before or after, I feel absolutely sure,
+when du Maurier was more truly glad to see me. His colour rapidly
+returned, and he swore that of all the bonnes blagues this was the
+best; but for all that, one thing is certain--he has never since
+attempted to pick pockets in Regent Street.
+
+A delightful compromise between Bohemia and the land where
+well-regulated Society rules supreme, was the ground on which stood
+Moray Lodge, the residence of Arthur Lewis, the head of the well-known
+firm of Lewis and Allenby.
+
+We have read of him before:--
+
+    "Sir Lewis Cornelys, as everybody knows, lives in a palace on
+    Campden Hill, a house of many windows, and, whichever window
+    he looks out of, he sees his own garden and very little else.
+    There was no pleasanter or more festive house than his in
+    London, winter or summer."
+
+I quote this, as probably it may not be known to everybody that Sir
+Lewis was knighted on the memorable occasion of Trilby's birthday,
+when she was presented at the drawing--and every other--room. With
+much kindly fore-thought his friend and biographer allows him to be
+eighty years old in the early sixties, thereby enabling him to have
+attained to-day the ripe old age of one hundred and fourteen.
+
+Well, he was one of du Maurier's earliest friends, and when Taffy
+the Laird, and Little Billie, "a-smokin' their pipes and cigyars,"
+told the cabby to drive to Mechelen Lodge, I found my way to what I
+called Moray Lodge, and met them there. And there too, to be sure,
+was Glorioli, "the tall, good-looking swarthy foreigner from whose
+scarcely parted, moist, thick, bearded lips issued the most ravishing
+sounds that had ever been heard from throat of man or woman or boy."
+
+As we now empty one or the other of the million bottles that are
+about, marked "De Soria, Bordeaux," we often think with gratitude of
+the great wine-grower and still greater singer, so correctly described
+as "singing best for love or glory in the studios of his friends."
+
+To return to Arthur Lewis:--
+
+He occupied an exceptional position, inasmuch as he had made his house
+a centre towards which intellectual London gravitated. When he had
+done this, that, and the other to make his bachelor days memorable to
+a host of friends, he wound up by marrying one of England's fairest
+women, our great actress, Kate Terry. It was in those early days that
+Ellen, the débutante, was introduced to the dramatic world as "Kate
+Terry's sister." Since then Kate, having elected to rest on her
+laurels, is proud to be referred to by the younger generation as
+"Ellen Terry's sister."
+
+In early life Lewis had various roads open to him. Born, as he was,
+with the capacity of a man of business, the means and opportunities of
+a man of leisure, and the talents of an artist, he managed to follow
+the three roads at the same time, and they all led to well-deserved
+success. He was to be found at his desk in Regent Street, at his easel
+in the studio, or on the threshold of that big billiard and reception
+room which he had built to entertain his friends. Himself an artist,
+and for many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was on
+terms of close friendship with the men who had made their mark in the
+art-world, and with many who were destined to become famous. He was
+a Mæcenas of the right sort, knowing a good thing when he came across
+it, and frequently acquiring it before the sleepy world awoke to its
+merits.
+
+I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he welcomed the first
+pictures Joseph Israels exhibited in England in 1862. Neither in
+the English nor in the Dutch department of the Exhibition could he
+ascertain whether these two pictures, "The Drowned Fisherman" and
+"Washing the Cradle," were for sale. But luck would have it that he
+was introduced to Israels at the Academy _soirée_, and the artist,
+assuring him that the pictures were "certainly for sale," Lewis
+secured the coveted works, and was thus the first to establish
+Israels' fame in England.
+
+The gatherings in Moray Lodge were unique in their way. It was
+characteristic of the master and the house that they made everybody
+feel at home, from the titled aristocrat in the dress-suit to the
+free-and-easy brother-brush or pen, and the sometimes out-at-elbow
+friend Bohemian.
+
+There was the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lorne, Lord Dufferin,
+Mr. Frederic Leighton, Associate of the Royal Academy, Fred Walker,
+who sang tenor in the choir, of which more presently, and who on
+several occasions designed the cards of invitation for Lewis.
+There was Lord Houghton, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rossetti,
+Landseer, Daubigny, Gustave Doré, Arthur Sullivan, Leech, Keene,
+Tenniel, &c., &c. It is as hard to pass those names over without
+comment as it must have been to run the gauntlet of Scylla and
+Charybdis, for every one of them brings back some recollection, and
+calls upon the pen to start a paragraph with an "I well remember."
+
+But that would lead me away from Moray Lodge and the famous Saturday
+evenings, and I never was, and am not now, in a hurry to get away from
+that hospitable mansion.
+
+The billiard-table was boxed over on the gala nights and transformed
+into a buffet. It was covered with bottles and glasses, pipes and
+cigars, and towards the close of the evening with mountains of
+oysters. The amount we consumed on one occasion was 278 dozen, as I
+happen to know. But the great attraction at these gatherings was the
+part-singing of the twenty-five "Moray Minstrels." John Foster was the
+conductor, and led them to such perfection that the severest critic of
+the day, dear old crabbed Henry F. Chorley, proclaimed them the best
+representatives of the English school of glee-singing.
+
+Another no less interesting feature was the performance of small
+theatrical pieces. Du Maurier and Harold Power had given us charming
+musical duologues, like "Les Deux Aveugles," by Offenbach, and "Les
+Deux Gilles," with great success, and that led to further developments
+and far-reaching consequences. A small party of friends were dining
+with Lewis. "What shall we get up next?" was the question raised.
+"Something new and original," suggested the host. "Now, Sullivan, you
+should write us something." "All right," said Sullivan, "but how about
+the words? Where's the libretto?" "Oh, I'll write that," said Burnand.
+And thus those two were started. "Cox and Box," a travesty of "Box
+and Cox," was read and rehearsed a fortnight afterwards at Burnand's
+house, and the following Saturday it was performed at Moray Lodge.
+Du Maurier was "Box," Harold Power "Cox," and John Foster "Sergeant
+Bouncer." Du Maurier's rendering of "Hush-a-by, Bacon," was so
+sympathetic and tender that one's heart went out to the contents of
+the frying-pan, wishing them pleasant dreams.
+
+Then there was his famous duet with "Box," reciting their marriage to
+one and the same lady, and the long recitative in which the printer
+describes his elaborate preparations for suicide.
+
+How he solemnly walked to the cliff and heard the seagulls' mournful
+cry--and looked all around--there was nobody nigh. Then (disposing his
+bundle on the brink)--"Away to the opposite side I walked." ("Away"
+on the high A, that Sullivan put in on purpose for du Maurier, who
+possessed that chest-note in great fulness.)
+
+I must skip a few years and speak of a drawing that appeared in
+_Punch_ in 1875,[4] and which has a special interest for me; it brings
+back to my mind a happy thought of du Maurier's, which is closely
+connected with a particularly happy thought of my own, that took root
+then and has flourished ever since.
+
+[Footnote 4: Published by kind permission of the proprietors of
+_Punch_.]
+
+I must explain that there was a time when I had to console myself
+with the reflection that the course of true love never runs smooth. A
+lady whom in my mind I had selected as a mother-in-law, by no means
+reciprocated my feelings of respect and goodwill. But the young lady,
+her daughter, fortunately sided with me, and had, in fact, given her
+very willing consent to the change in her mother's position which I
+had suggested. I was naturally anxious to assure that young lady as
+frequently and as emphatically as possible how much I appreciated
+her assistance, and how determined I was never to have any other
+mother-in-law but the one of my choice; nor could there be anything
+obscure in such a declaration, as of three sisters in the family that
+particular one was the only unmarried one. But neither in obscure nor
+in explicit language was I allowed to approach her; a blockade was
+declared and rigorously enforced, and we were soon separated by a
+distance of some few hundred miles.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I can look back complacently on the troubles of those days now that
+twenty years have elapsed since I emerged victorious from the contest;
+but then the future looked blank and bleak, and I felt nonplussed and
+down-hearted. Knowing, however, what a faint heart is said never to
+win, I was anxious to keep mine up to the mark, and with a view to
+stimulating its buoyancy I went to make a friendly call on du Maurier.
+He would, I felt sure, be sympathetic, and, whatever else might be
+wanting in that troublesome eye of his, there would be a certain
+vivifying twinkle in it that could always set me up.
+
+It was as I expected, and I had the full benefit of the eye, and of an
+ear, too, that he lent willingly as I told him how matters stood.
+
+"Well," he said, "if you can't smuggle in a letter, let's smuggle in
+your portrait. It will be rather a joke if she comes across you in
+_Punch_. I've just got a subject in which I can use you."
+
+To be sure, I jumped at the idea, only beseeching him to make me
+as handsome as he possibly could, without losing sight of the main
+object, viz., that the young lady should be able to recognise me. Her
+mother too, I felt sure, would not fail to be duly impressed, for to
+figure in _Punch_ would raise me in her estimation as a person of no
+small importance.
+
+The drawing was made and published, and the scheme worked well;
+coupled, perhaps, with a few millions of other influences, and with
+the assistance of the Fates, it achieved the desired result, and
+before a year had elapsed the original drawing could be presented
+by du Maurier to the young lady, now become a bride, as a memento of
+bygone troubles.
+
+One more digression suggested by the name of Arthur Sullivan; it
+shall be the last. I am not going back to the time when we were boys
+together in Leipsic, but will only mention him in connection with
+Carry; this time Carry in another form.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Shortly after that big wave intervened that separated her from us a
+happy chance put me in possession of a dog, the most affectionate and
+lovable of Skye terriers.
+
+I named him Carry.
+
+That dog, his qualities and virtues, and especially his musical gifts,
+deserve more than a passing mention; but, trusting that he, like every
+dog, will have his day, I will here only transcribe a letter of his
+that he wrote with the assistance of his friend, Arthur Sullivan, who,
+attracted perhaps by the gifts above named, had kindly taken charge of
+him during my temporary absence on the Continent. Poor dog! He is dead
+now; so that there can be no indiscretion in publishing his bark and
+its translation. The former is best given in its original setting.
+The latter, purporting to be a "Translation of the foregoing by A.S.,"
+runs as follows:--
+
+    "MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED MASTER,--My kind friend, Mr. Sullivan,
+    who pretends to be as fond of me as you are, has taken me away
+    from the enjoyment of a delicious mutton bone, in order to
+    answer your letter; and as I cannot find a pen to suit me
+    well, he is writing whilst I dictate. I was very low-spirited
+    the other day after leaving you, and appeared to feel the
+    parting very much, but it soon wore off under the influence
+    of biscuit, bones, and kindness; indeed, I must do Sully and
+    his family the justice to say that they try to do the utmost
+    to make me happy and comfortable, although they don't always
+    succeed, for sometimes I appear dissatisfied (hoping,
+    _entre-nous_, by that means to get more out of them).
+
+    "I have several idiosyncrasies and failings, of which my
+    master (_pro tem._) is trying to correct me, but finds it
+    rather hard work, for I am not so easily brought out of them.
+    I have a will of my own, but Sully says: 'Train up a dog in
+    the way it should go, and he will not depart, &c., &c.'--and
+    Sully is right.
+
+    "Don't you think it is a bad plan to wash me with soap? I
+    think it deters me from licking my skin, and consequently
+    from having those ideas of cleanliness engendered within me
+    which are so necessary to every well-bred dog moving in good
+    society!
+
+    "I want to get back to my bone, but Sully says I must first
+    deliver a message from him. You are to give his love to your
+    dear parents (in which I heartily join), and tell them how
+    grieved he was that he did not see them to wish them 'God
+    speed' before they left England, and how it hurt him to think
+    that a long, long time would perhaps elapse before he should
+    see them again.
+
+    "And now, my dear master, I must say 'Good-bye.' Much love in
+    few words, in which Sully joins me.
+
+    "Believe me, ever your
+
+    "Attached and faithful dog,
+
+    [Illustration: Carry
+
+    X
+
+    his mark]
+
+    "F. MOSCHELES, Esq."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now I come to du Maurier's last letter--the best, as I am sure
+every right-minded person will admit. I have kept it "pour la bonne
+bouche" (excuse my quoting French. "Will me not of it," as our
+neighbours say; there are unassailable precedents for such quoting,
+you know--or ought to know). The letter in question speaks of an event
+so momentous, that of all events it is the one most worthy to "be
+marked with a white, white stone"; and marked it was, if not with a
+stone, with satins and laces and a veil and white orange blossoms.
+
+"Come and be introduced to the future Mrs. Kicky," it said. "She
+intends to celebrate her 21st birthday by a small dance. There will
+be friends and pretty girls, 'en veux tu, en violà.' So rek-lect,
+olf'lah, Tuesday, at half-past seven."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The drawing shows how I was introduced, and how graciously I was
+received.
+
+The letter needs a word of explanation, as it speaks of the "future
+Mrs. 'Kicky,'" and I have not yet mentioned that Kicky was but another
+name for du Maurier. He got it at an early period of his life. Just
+as any other baby less favoured by "Dame Fortune the witch" would have
+done, he gave himself his nickname. He picked it up in Brussels when
+he was two years old, and under the care of Flemish servants. They
+called him "Mannekin" (little man), and that he converted into
+"Kicky." I append one of the numerous varieties of his signature.
+
+[Illustration: Kick]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rag, Tag, and Bobtail had its day, and was shelved soon after
+we bid adieu to Bohemia; but the Kicky survived and flourished, and
+to-day not only his old chums, but those nearest and dearest to him,
+feel that they could not do without that particular appellation,
+associated as it is with a thousand and one happy memories.
+
+And having arrived at that busiest of stations, the Matrimonial
+Junction, where the converted bachelor alights and changes for Better
+or for Worse, this chapter fitly comes to a close, meant as it was
+only to sketch some of the pleasant recollections that I, in common
+with so many of his friends, have of du Maurier's bachelor days.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In Bohemia with Du Maurier
+       The First Of A Series Of Reminiscences
+
+Author: Felix Moscheles
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2004 [EBook #13517]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, William Flis, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+    <h1>In Bohemia with Du Maurier</h1>
+
+    <h3><i>The First of a Series of Reminiscences</i></h3>
+
+    <h4>BY</h4>
+
+    <h3>FELIX MOSCHELES</h3>
+
+    <h4><i>With</i> 63 <i>Original Drawings</i></h4>
+
+    <h4>BY</h4>
+
+    <h3>G. Du MAURIER</h3>
+
+    <h4><i>Illustrating the Artist's Life in the Fifties</i></h4>
+
+    <h4>LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN</h4>
+    <hr />
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/front.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/front.png"
+             alt="'FOR EVER AND A DAY.' (frontispiece)" /></a>"FOR EVER AND A DAY."
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page7"
+       id="page7"></a>{7}</span> 
+
+    <p><i>The few introductory words to this volume were written,
+    and the last proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news
+    overtook me in lovely Venice. My world, resplendent with
+    sunshine, was suddenly lost in darkness. The most lovable of
+    men, whose presence alone sufficed to make life worth living to
+    all those near and dear to him, was gone from amongst us. His
+    hand was no longer to hold those pens&mdash;the finely-pointed
+    one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His
+    well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth.</i></p>
+
+    <p><i>Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages
+    jars upon me. How differently would I attune the story of our
+    student days, were I to write it to-day in loving memory of my
+    friend!</i></p>
+
+    <p><i>But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book,
+    cordially endorsed by him, is printed and all but issued; he
+    would not let me recall it, I know. He himself, in his kindly,
+    simple way, had enjoyed my resuscitation of our early
+    recollections, and had here and there lent a helpful hand even
+    to the correcting of the
+    proofs.</i></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page8"
+       id="page8"></a>{8}</span> 
+
+    <p><i>To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as
+    I would now venture to record them, I must wait till the
+    heavier clouds have cleared away and left the picture, I would
+    draw once more to stand out brightly in the background of
+    Time.</i></p>
+
+    <p class="author"><i>FELIX MOSCHELES.</i></p>
+
+    <p><i>October, 1896.</i></p>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page9"
+       id="page9"></a>{9}</span> 
+
+    <h1>IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER</h1>
+
+    <h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+    <p>"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a
+    trifle more in my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time
+    before he published his "Trilby"; and that remark started us
+    talking of the good old times in Antwerp, and overhauling the
+    numerous drawings and sketches in which he so vividly depicted
+    the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed to me that some
+    of those drawings should be published, if only to show how my
+    now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In order
+    that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the
+    following pages.</p>
+
+    <p>The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not
+    the wild country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional
+    savages, so often described, but a little cultivated corner of
+    the land, as I found it in Antwerp, a mere background to the
+    incidents I had to relate. Such
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page10"
+       id="page10"></a>{10}</span> as it is, it may perhaps serve
+       here and there to point to the original soil from which were
+       eventually to spring some of the figures so familiar to us
+       to-day.</p>
+
+    <p>To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories,
+    and if I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that
+    pleasures shared are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I
+    always was, I am truly glad to have the opportunity of giving a
+    hearty welcome to those who may care to join my friend and
+    myself in our ramblings and our "tumblings."</p>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page11"
+       id="page11"></a>{11}</span> 
+
+    <h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+    <center>
+        PART I. <a href="#page17">17</a>
+    </center>
+
+    <center>
+        PART II. <a href="#page69">69</a>
+    </center>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page13"
+       id="page13"></a>{13}</span> 
+
+    <h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+    <div class="toc">
+        <p>"FOR EVER AND A DAY" <i>Frontispiece</i></p>
+
+        <p>THE ATELIER GLEYRE <a href="#page18">18</a></p>
+
+        <p>MY BLOUSE <a href="#page20">20</a></p>
+
+        <p class="i4">(<i>From an oil-sketch by Matthew
+        Maris.</i>)</p>
+
+        <p>PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES
+        <a href="#page27">27</a></p>
+
+        <p>FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING <a href="#page30">30</a></p>
+
+        <p>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE
+        <a href="#page32">32</a></p>
+
+        <p>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX <a href="#page32">32</a></p>
+
+        <p>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES
+        #33</p>
+
+        <p>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX <a href="#page33">33</a></p>
+
+        <p>F. S'IL ÉTAIT CHEVAL <a href="#page33">33</a></p>
+
+        <p>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES
+        <a href="#page34">34</a></p>
+
+        <p>"CE SACRÉ VÉSICATOIRE" <a href="#page35">35</a></p>
+
+        <p>ISABEL DU MAURIER <a href="#page35">35</a></p>
+
+        <p>MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?&mdash;WHICH
+        <a href="#page40">40</a></p>
+
+        <p>"INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" <a href="#page42">42</a></p>
+
+        <p>DU MAURIER IMPROVISING
+        <a href="#page43">43</a></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page14"
+           id="page14"></a>{14}</span> 
+
+        <p>HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+        BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG
+        <a href="#page44">44</a></p>
+
+        <p>THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+        HAT <a href="#page46">46</a></p>
+
+        <p>"BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+        TOBACCONISTE" <a href="#page49">49</a></p>
+
+        <p>"SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE"
+        <a href="#page50">50</a></p>
+
+        <p>A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR
+        <a href="#page57">57</a></p>
+
+        <p>THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY
+        <a href="#page60">60</a></p>
+
+        <p>FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY
+        <a href="#page64">64</a></p>
+
+        <p>"RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY
+        <a href="#page65">65</a></p>
+
+        <p>RAG <a href="#page72">72</a></p>
+
+        <p>BOBTAIL <a href="#page72">72</a></p>
+
+        <p>"WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+        HANG MYSELF, I WONDER." <a href="#page76">76</a></p>
+
+        <p>COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS
+        <a href="#page80">80</a></p>
+
+        <p>CLARA MOSCHELES <a href="#page83">83</a></p>
+
+        <p>"HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+        UND IHREN BRUDER." <a href="#page87">87</a></p>
+
+        <p>CHER LIX <a href="#page88">88</a></p>
+
+        <p>"AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY &mdash;&mdash;"
+        <a href="#page89">89</a></p>
+
+        <p>DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN <a href="#page90">90</a></p>
+
+        <p>"CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+        GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI"
+        <a href="#page91">91</a></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page15"
+           id="page15"></a>{15}</span> 
+
+        <p>DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS
+        <a href="#page93">93</a></p>
+
+        <p>THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT <a href="#page95">95</a></p>
+
+        <p>YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+        PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE
+        <a href="#page97">97</a></p>
+
+        <p>AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR <a href="#page99">99</a></p>
+
+        <p>"I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+        DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S"
+        <a href="#page100">100</a></p>
+
+        <p>MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE
+        PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+        BLACKGUARD" <a href="#page101">101</a></p>
+
+        <p>MEETING IN DÜSSELDORF <a href="#page103">103</a></p>
+
+        <p>SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN
+        <a href="#page106">106</a></p>
+
+        <p>PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA <a href="#page115">115</a></p>
+
+        <p>"ON THEIR HONEYMOON" <a href="#page116">116</a></p>
+
+        <p><i>Also Illustration on pages</i>
+        <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page88">88</a>,
+        <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>,
+        <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>,
+        <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>,
+        <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>,
+        <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page135">135</a>,
+        <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a>.</p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page17"
+       id="page17"></a>{17}</span> 
+
+    <h2>I.</h2>
+
+    <h2>"TUMBLINGS"</h2>
+
+    <h3><i>WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS.</i></h3>
+
+    <p>"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the
+    class-rooms of the famous Antwerp Academy.</p>
+
+    <p>I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in
+    the storm and stress period of one's artistic development.</p>
+
+    <p>It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris;
+    it was there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think
+    I may say, very successfully, the essentially French art of
+    chaffing, known by the name of "La blague parisienne," and I
+    now was able to give my less lively Flemish friends and
+    fellow-students the full benefit of my experience. Many
+    pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when I heard one
+    day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page18"
+       id="page18"></a>{18}</span> atelier Gleyre, I was not a
+       little impatient to make his acquaintance.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/17.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/17.png"
+             alt="THE ATELIER GLEYRE." /></a>THE ATELIER GLEYRE.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking
+    it for granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in
+    French; we were soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and
+    answering questions about the comrades in Paris, and sorting
+    the threads that associated us both with the same place. "Did
+    you know 'un nommé Pointer'?" he asked, exquisitely
+    Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally translated
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page19"
+       id="page19"></a>{19}</span> this into equally exquisite
+       English, my version naturally being: "A man called
+       Poynter."</p>
+
+    <p>Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few
+    words in his and my native tongue. "What the D. are
+    you&mdash;English?" broke in du Maurier. "And what the D. are
+    you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D. stood for Dickens or for
+    the other one; probably it was the latter. At any rate, whether
+    more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and there made
+    friends on a sound international basis.</p>
+
+    <p>It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier
+    took me in at a glance&mdash;the eager, hungry glance of the
+    caricaturist. He seemed struck with my appearance, as well he
+    might be. I wore a workman's blouse that had gradually taken
+    its colour from its surroundings. To protect myself from the
+    indiscretions of my comrades I had painted various warnings on
+    my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware," "It is
+    forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black
+    hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily
+    conceived band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's
+    hand could devise, and I was doubtless colouring some
+    meerschaum of eccentric design. My
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page20"
+       id="page20"></a>{20}</span> fellow-student, the now famous
+       Matthew Maris, immortalised that blouse and that piece of
+       crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here
+       reproduced.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/19.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/19.png"
+             alt="MY BLOUSE." /></a>MY BLOUSE.<br />
+         (<i>From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris.</i>)
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page21"
+       id="page21"></a>{21}</span> 
+
+    <p>It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to
+    think that I should have been the tool selected by Providence
+    to sharpen du Maurier's pencil; there must have been something
+    in my "Verfluchte Physiognomie," as a very handsome young
+    German, whom I used to chaff unmercifully, called it, to reveal
+    to du Maurier hidden possibilities and to awaken in him those
+    dormant capacities which had betrayed themselves in the eager
+    glance above named.</p>
+
+    <p>This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as
+    regards that date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters
+    before me, but they offer me no assistance; there is but one
+    dated, and that one merely headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent."
+    Well, in 1857, then, let us take it, the Antwerp Academy was
+    under the direction of De Keyser, that most urbane of men and
+    painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American and English
+    lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the
+    Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who
+    rapidly made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys,
+    Heyermans, and the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies
+    after the Masters at the Antwerp Gallery are well known to
+    every <span class="pagenum"><a name="page22"
+       id="page22"></a>{22}</span> tourist. The teaching was of a
+       sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies
+       of the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the
+       traditions of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might
+       have studied form and learnt to fill it with colour, but
+       here you would be taught to manipulate colour, and to limit
+       it by form. A peculiar kind of artistic kicks and cuffs were
+       administered to the student by Van Lerius as he went his
+       rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you have painted
+       in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion&mdash;"so
+       delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up
+       my palette knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah,
+       you see, <i>savez vous</i>, you can't do it again; you got
+       it by fluke, some stray tints off your palette, <i>savez
+       vous</i>," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept
+       over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints
+       to have covered a dozen foreheads.</p>
+
+    <p>The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was
+    amusing to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and
+    at the shortest notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble
+    toes would screw and unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or
+    handle the brush as steadily
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page23"
+       id="page23"></a>{23}</span> as the best and deftest of
+       fingers could have done. Very much unlike any of us, he was
+       most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his paint box,
+       as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys,
+       Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose
+       thread of life was soon to be cut short, were painting
+       splendid studies, some of which I was fortunate enough to
+       rescue from destruction and have happily preserved.</p>
+
+    <p>Quite worthy to be placed next to these are
+    Van-der-something's studies. That (or something like that) was
+    the name of a wiry, active little man who in those days painted
+    in a garret; there everything was disarranged chaotically,
+    mostly on the floor, for there was no furniture that I can
+    recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine old
+    looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked
+    contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not
+    badly appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an
+    exuberance of charms and graces characteristic of a Rubens
+    model.</p>
+
+    <p>A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young
+    German, brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He
+    had always held <span class="pagenum"><a name="page24"
+       id="page24"></a>{24}</span> most rigid principles on
+       questions of morality, but unfortunately they failed one day
+       in their application, owing to the less settled views
+       entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects.
+       She certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but
+       on the other she so audaciously appropriated those of his
+       goods and chattels that could be turned into money, that the
+       police had to intervene, and she eventually found herself
+       before a judge and jury. There, however, she managed so well
+       to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to this day,
+       I believe was quite innocent, that&mdash;"cherchez la
+       femme"&mdash;she got off, and he was sentenced to a term of
+       imprisonment.</p>
+
+    <p>Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for
+    forging their signatures, and he had been found guilty and
+    condemned to severe punishment, it would have served him right.
+    He was a perfect gem of a forger. He picked up a stock of those
+    dirty old pictures painted on worm-eaten panels that used to
+    abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp. On these he would paint
+    what might be called replicas with variations, cribbing left
+    and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered all
+    about the floor. He would
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page25"
+       id="page25"></a>{25}</span> scrape and scumble, brighten and
+       deaden with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and
+       manipulate till his picture, after a given time spent in a
+       damp cellar, would emerge as a genuine old master. I once
+       asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular customer of his,
+       at what price he sold one of those productions. "I really
+       can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I
+       buy for exportation to England and America." If any of my
+       friends here or over there possess some work of
+       Van-der-something's, I sincerely congratulate them, for the
+       little man was a genius in his way.</p>
+
+    <p>Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor
+    fellow, he spent but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What
+    became of his Circe I never sought to know. It was a clear case
+    of "Ne cherchez pas la femme!"</p>
+
+    <p>The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean
+    Heyermans (detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved
+    himself, for he at once took me in hand, helped me to find home
+    and hearth, and generally gave me the correct tip, so valuable
+    to the stranger. He lost no time in teaching me some of those
+    full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from the first enabled me
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page26"
+       id="page26"></a>{26}</span> to emphasise my meaning when I
+       wished to express it in unmistakable language.</p>
+
+    <p>He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English,
+    French, and German fluently, in addition to his native
+    language, Dutch; so he soon chummed with du Maurier and me in
+    several languages, and became one of our set. He was always
+    ready to follow us in our digressions from the conventional
+    course, and we felt that many of our best international jokes
+    would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and
+    appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us,
+    inviting us to his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply
+    knives and forks, and to empty glasses of various dimensions.
+    That gentleman's corpulence had reached a degree which clearly
+    showed that he must have "lost sight of his knees" some years
+    back, but he was none the less strong and active. There were
+    two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other
+    sympathetically musical.</p>
+
+    <p>How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know,
+    but he figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings.</p>
+
+    <p>"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come
+    on Sunday, may the vengeance of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page27"
+       id="page27"></a>{27}</span> the gods overtake him! Tell him
+       so. I'll meet him at the train." And then he sketches the
+       meeting and greeting of the two, and the railway guard
+       starting his train with the old-fashioned horn-signal on the
+       G.E.C. then in use.</p>
+
+    <p>My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular
+    exhibitor in Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a
+    remarkable taste and talent for teaching.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/26.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/26.png"
+             alt="PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES." />
+        </a>PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert
+    Browning one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking
+    about his son's talents and prospects. (This was a few years
+    after my final return to England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I
+    said, "to Heyermans; he is the best man I know of to start
+    him."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page28"
+       id="page28"></a>{28}</span> 
+
+    <p>Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a
+    picture after little more than a twelve-month that at once
+    found an eager purchaser. The poet took great pride in his
+    son's success, and lost no opportunity of speaking in the most
+    grateful and appreciative terms of the teacher. Millais and
+    Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans' reputation was
+    established. A few years ago he migrated to London, where he
+    continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the
+    Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a
+    rising generation.</p>
+
+    <p>Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was
+    Alma Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time,
+    but had previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in
+    the room adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively
+    interested in the study of costume and history. The incident
+    that led to his leaving the academy rather abruptly is
+    characteristic. An uncle of his having given him a commission
+    for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for authorisation to
+    make the necessary break in his studies. The Director accorded
+    him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling
+    the circumstance, "I couldn't
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page29"
+       id="page29"></a>{29}</span> paint a picture in three weeks
+       then, and I cannot now."</p>
+
+    <p>I little thought that from his studies of costume and
+    history, the comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and
+    uninterrupted series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past
+    and presenting it with the erudition of the Student and the
+    genius of the Artist. Nor did anything foreshadow that my
+    genial Dutch friend, to whom the English language was a dead
+    letter, was destined in a not too distant Future to become a
+    shining light of England's Royal Academy.</p>
+
+    <p>Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and
+    made a vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly
+    recollect a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and
+    a boy&mdash;a pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's
+    album&mdash;that showed talent enough and to spare, but his
+    artistic aspirations were soon to meet with a serious check.
+    His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and before long put a
+    stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was not to become
+    a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know, he was
+    to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest
+    of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of
+    ink, when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or
+    graceful shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns
+    to prompt and guide that
+    pen.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page30"
+       id="page30"></a>{30}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/29.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/29.png"
+             alt="&lt;i&gt;From du Maurier's painting.&lt;/i&gt;" />
+             </a><i>From du Maurier's painting.</i>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page31"
+       id="page31"></a>{31}</span> 
+
+    <p>In those days we called all that caricaturing, and
+    caricature he certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the
+    first he imagined he saw a marked contrast between us. His nose
+    was supposed to be turned up, and mine down, whereas really
+    neither his nor mine much deviated from the ordinary run of
+    noses; my lower lip certainly does project, but his does not
+    particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary contrast
+    inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance, and
+    started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all
+    conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles
+    and I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had
+    we been artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the
+    fair sex, or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility,
+    if we were horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the
+    essence of our characteristics, whilst appearing only to
+    delineate our human and equine possibilities. Poor F.,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32"
+       id="page32"></a>{32}</span> one of our German friends, fares
+       badly, a donkey's head portraying him "s'il était
+       cheval."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/31-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/31-1.png"
+             alt="MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE." />
+             </a>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU BEAU SEXE.
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/31-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/31-2.png"
+             alt="SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX." /></a>SI NOUS AVIONS
+             ÉTÉ BEAUX.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du
+    Maurier left Antwerp for Malines,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33"
+       id="page33"></a>{33}</span> to place himself under the care
+       of an eminent oculist who resided within easy reach of that
+       city. That blessed blister&mdash;"ce sacré vésicatoire," as
+       he calls it, is one of the doctor's remedies.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:90%;">
+        <a href="images/32-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/32-1.png"
+             alt="MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES." />
+        </a>MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ ARTISTES.
+    </div>
+
+    <table summary="illustrations"
+           align="center">
+        <tr>
+            <td><a href="images/32-2.png"><img width="100%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/32-2.png"
+                 alt="SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX." /></a></td>
+
+            <td><a href="images/32-3.png"><img width="85%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/32-3.png"
+                 alt="F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL." /></a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td align="center"><small>SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ
+            CHEVAUX.</small></td>
+
+            <td align="center"><small>F. S'IL ETAIT
+            CHEVAL.</small></td>
+        </tr>
+    </table><span class="pagenum"><a name="page34"
+       id="page34"></a>{34}</span> 
+
+    <p>The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister
+    of Mercy.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:65%;">
+        <a href="images/33.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/33.png"
+             alt="SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES." /></a>SI NOUS
+             AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is
+    now, but one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an
+    hour, a circumstance which I frequently turned to account. Du
+    Maurier's mother had come to live with him, his sister joining
+    them for a short time, and the home in quiet old Malines soon
+    became a sort <span class="pagenum"><a name="page35"
+       id="page35"></a>{35}</span> of haven of rest. I spent many a
+       happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to
+       say that the piano, requisitioned by me for some special
+       purposes of musical caricature, detracted somewhat from the
+       restfulness of the haven. However that may have been, such
+       intrusion was never resented; my Swedish prima donna, or my
+       qualifications as a basso profondo, or a brass-bandsman,
+       were always treated with the greatest indulgence by the
+       ladies, and my high soprano flourished and
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page36"
+       id="page36"></a>{36}</span> positively reached unknown
+       altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause.
+       (For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:80%;">
+        <a href="images/34-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/34-1.png"
+             alt="'CE SACRÉ VESICATOIRE.'" /></a>"CE SACRÉ
+             VESICATOIRE."
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figright"
+         style="width:40%;">
+        <a href="images/34-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/34-2.png"
+             alt="ISABEL DU MAURIER." /></a>ISABEL DU MAURIER.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the
+    English song, or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with
+    his sympathetic tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he
+    seemed to be able to express more than many who had had the
+    advantage of a musical training. A few old letters of his
+    remind me that we were audacious enough to write verses and
+    music, he doing the former, I the latter.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes.
+    "Take strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,'
+    and compose some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with
+    which Rag's ideal flame has inspired Rag&mdash;<i>surtout</i>,
+    let it be as good as possible, with accompaniment <i>à
+    l'avenant</i>. An alteration in the music of each stanza would
+    render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
+    compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I
+    must tell later on.) <span class="pagenum"><a name="page37"
+       id="page37"></a>{37}</span> Then follow the
+       words:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <center>
+        CHANSON.
+    </center>
+
+    <center>
+        <i>D'apres un barde Britannique</i>.<a id="footnotetag1"
+                name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
+    </center>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Les sources vont à la rivière</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Et la rivière à l'océan;</p>
+
+            <p>Les monts embrassent la lumière,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Le vent du ciel se mêle au vent;</p>
+
+            <p>Contre le flot, le flot se presse;</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Rien ne vit seul&mdash;tout semble,
+            ici,</p>
+
+            <p>Se fondre en la commune ivresse....</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi?</p>
+
+            <p>Vois le soleil étreint la terre,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Qui rougit d'aise à son
+            coucher&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>La lune étreint les flots, qu'éclaire</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Son rayon doux comme un baiser;</p>
+
+            <p>Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas</p>
+
+            <p>Que valent toutes ces caresses</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Si tu ne me caresses
+            pas?<a id="footnotetag2"
+               name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a></p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le
+    compositeur de face" head the page.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:70%;">
+        <a href="images/36.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/36.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and
+    writes:</p>
+
+    <p>"DEAR BOBTAIL,&mdash;I send you the Serenade
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page38"
+       id="page38"></a>{38}</span> composed 'tant bien que mal'
+       last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between
+       the tea and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as
+       dramatic as you wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and
+       as Mahomet can't write words to the mountain's music, the
+       mountain must try and adapt its music to the verses of
+       Mahomet.</p>
+
+    <center>
+        SÉRÉNADE APRÈS LA SIESTE.
+    </center>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta
+            paupière,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Chasse les rêves d'or de ton léger
+            sommeil&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Ils sont là, nos amis; cêde a notre prière</p>
+
+            <p>Le trône préparé n'attend que ton réveil;</p>
+
+            <p>Le soleil a cessé de régner sur la terre,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Viens régner sur la fête et sois notre
+            soleil.</p>
+
+            <p>Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux</p>
+
+            <p>Au jardin des amours, viens ô viens avec nous.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Au jardin des amours ta place est réservée,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en
+            fleurs.</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Viens réveiller en nous de nouvelles
+            ardeurs&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosée&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit à la vallée,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire à
+            nos coeurs!</p>
+
+            <p>Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,</p>
+
+            <p>Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux
+            regards pour moi!</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Déjà j'entends les jeux de la foule en
+            émoi</p>
+
+            <p>Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux délire!</p>
+
+            <p>Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra
+            dire:</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page39"
+               id="page39"></a>{39}</span> 
+
+            <p class="i2">'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a
+            chanté sans toi!'</p>
+
+            <p>Réponds à nos accords par tes accents plus doux,</p>
+
+            <p>Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens ô viens avec
+            nous!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance,
+    the first tenor says he hears the folks doing the light
+    fantastic toe. One might suppose they danced in
+    sabots&mdash;mere poetic license, and besides, a first tenor
+    ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire
+    yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have
+    been, I do not remember, but I find this is what he writes on
+    the subject&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"CARISSIMO,&mdash;In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive
+    powers to alter the last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce
+    baiser-la.' The lines I have underlined mean that I don't quite
+    approve the part of the music that comes just there, as in the
+    musical phrase you have set to it I fancy there is a want of
+    tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the more I hums it the
+    more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your
+    accompaniment."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:85%;">
+        <a href="images/39.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/39.png"
+             alt="Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather
+    indefinite quantities, subject to
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page40"
+       id="page40"></a>{40}</span> the mood of the moment.
+       "Moscheles or Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts
+       me at the piano, perhaps evolving some such accompaniment
+       from the depths of "untrained inner consciousness." "Eureka"
+       he might have put under that other sketch, where his own
+       hands have at last found some long-sought harmony or chord
+       on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat later
+       period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am
+       at the piano, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page42"
+       id="page42"></a>{42}</span> my eyes raised to the "She" in
+       papillottes, who floats as a vision in the clouds, issuing
+       from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my feet is stretched
+       the meditative form of my friend, and under them is crushed
+       some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/41.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/41.png"
+             alt="'INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE.'" /></a>"INSPIRATION
+             PAPILLOTIQUE."
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page43"
+       id="page43"></a>{43}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:70%;">
+        <a href="images/42.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/42.png"
+             alt="DU MAURIER IMPROVISING." /></a>DU MAURIER
+             IMPROVISING.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition
+    that most people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes"
+    that can inspire, I may permit myself to say something about
+    the attractive young lady who was able to lead us by easy
+    stages from the vague "inspiration papillotique"
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page44"
+       id="page44"></a>{44}</span> to an admiration which might be
+       said to culminate in flirtation. I don't remember either of
+       us ever trying to cut the other out, as the accompanying
+       sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail fight a duel
+       for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols.
+       Shows the way in which Rag tries to <i>désillusioñer</i>
+       Carry on Bobtail, and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto
+       on Rag <span class="pagenum"><a name="page45"
+       id="page45"></a>{45}</span> Carry being on this side of the
+       rivals is not represented."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/43.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/43.png"
+             alt="HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG." />
+        </a>HOW RAG TRIES TO DÉSILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+        BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the
+    enjoyment of her good graces, he having the pull of me the
+    greater part of the week, and only suspending operations in my
+    favour when I came to Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit.
+    These occasions were productive of a great number of drawings
+    and sketches, illustrating our little adventures, and all
+    plainly showing that the incidents recorded occurred to us at
+    that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions and buoyant
+    spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of the
+    rose colour than many a rose of a later day.</p>
+
+    <p>Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at
+    best up to the date of last century, beating the record for
+    dry-as-dustiness and growing dear little blades of grass
+    between its cobble stones. It boasts of a great many churches
+    and of a very great many more priests. (<i>Vide</i>: The
+    ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.) In
+    addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of
+    paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and
+    elsewhere, there were pretty girls about,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page46"
+       id="page46"></a>{46}</span> and I need not say that, as both
+       of us were studying art and devoting our best energies to
+       the cult of the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take
+       special notice of these pretty girls wherever we came across
+       them. It is probably the conscientious performance of his
+       duty in that direction which enabled du Maurier to evolve
+       those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of female beauty
+       we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been becoming
+       in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to
+       show less ardour in the pursuit of my studies.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/45.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/45.png"
+             alt="THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT." />
+        </a>THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+        HAT.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black
+    and white sketches of Miss
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page47"
+       id="page47"></a>{47}</span> Carry, it was reserved for me to
+       paint her portrait in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not
+       Carry; that appellation we had most unceremoniously and
+       unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else about her we
+       invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of poetry.
+       And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well
+       worthy of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being
+       charmed, of giving and taking, of free and easiness, coupled
+       with ladylike reserve. She seemed to be born with the
+       intuitive knowledge that there was only one life worth
+       living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time
+       well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In
+       fact, to give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul
+       was steeped in the very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to
+       Carry's soul, it may not be inappropriate to say something
+       also about her looks; but to describe good looks is, as we
+       all know, deliberately to court failure; far better request
+       every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he will
+       be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man
+       will be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop
+       of brown curly hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a
+       figure of peculiar
+       elasticity.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page48"
+       id="page48"></a>{48}</span> 
+
+    <p>Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who
+    had held a good position at one of the principal churches of
+    Malines. When he died he left but a small inheritance to his
+    widow; with what she could realise, she purchased the goodwill
+    of a small tobacconist's store and set up in business. Neither
+    the mother nor the daughter had much previous knowledge of the
+    concern they had started, and they were consequently not very
+    discriminating in the selection of their brands; but what was
+    lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by Mrs. L.'s
+    obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had been
+    steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them
+    about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a
+    time the little business was as flourishing as anything could
+    well be in Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically
+    conservative, and hereditarily stationary a city could hardly
+    be expected to encourage a new venture of the kind. Still even
+    there there were some young men about town, a sort of "jeunesse
+    doré", not of 18-carat gold perhaps, but a "jeunesse" quite
+    equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around the fair
+    tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier
+    and I supplied the rest, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page49"
+       id="page49"></a>{49}</span> and watched over her with
+       chivalrous, if not quite disinterested devotion. We differed
+       in every respect from the type of the young man of the
+       period above mentioned; so naturally we were bright stars in
+       Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior beings,
+       and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause;
+       du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I
+       could mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully!
+       We neither of us encourage hero-worship now, but then we
+       were "bons princes," and graciously accepted Carry's homage
+       as due to our superior merits.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/48.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/48.png"
+             alt="'BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE!'" />
+        </a>"BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+        TOBACCONISTE!"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous
+    devotion of ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds,
+    richly attired, as true <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50"
+       id="page50"></a>{50}</span> knights and good should be when
+       they go to pay homage to beauty.</p>
+
+    <p>"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair
+    tobacconiste!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/49.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/49.png"
+             alt="'SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!'" />
+             </a>"SALUT À LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing
+    fair."</p>
+
+    <p>The second drawing shows our "Salut à la Gente et accorte
+    pucelle!" and the winning smile with which Carry would receive
+    us.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page51"
+       id="page51"></a>{51}</span> 
+
+    <p>Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism,
+    formed so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation
+    between du Maurier and myself, that it takes a very prominent
+    place in my recollections.</p>
+
+    <p>In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most
+    interesting séances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded
+    to investigate the mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I
+    have not touched the fluid for some thirty years; I swore off
+    because it was taking too much out of me; but I look back with
+    pleasure on my earlier experiments, successes I may say, for I
+    was fortunate enough to come across several exceptional
+    subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of
+    these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling
+    questions concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence.
+    Virginie was a "femme de ménage" of the true Parisian type, a
+    devoted elderly creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman
+    and a housekeeper. I was not yet eighteen when I first went to
+    Paris, to study under my cousin, the eminent painter, Henri
+    Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie installed as the
+    presiding genius of the establishment, using in turn broom or
+    tub, needle, grill or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page52"
+       id="page52"></a>{52}</span> frying-pan as the occasion might
+       require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by
+       making a truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My début
+       in Paris was that of the somewhat bewildered foreigner,
+       speaking but very indifferent French, and she had from the
+       first done what she could to make me feel at home in the
+       strange city, treating me with truly motherly care and
+       devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown
+       by a passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in
+       Leipsic, where I had gone on a visit to my parents. After
+       expressing her anxiety and her regret at not being there to
+       nurse me, she emphatically says:&mdash;"Je rends Madame,
+       votre mère, responsable de votre santé" (I make Madame, your
+       mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little
+       to lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence
+       to one of unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few
+       passes shaping her course, I willed her across the boundary
+       line that separates us from the unknown, a line which,
+       thanks to science, is daily being extended. Madame veuve
+       Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the
+       phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were
+       such as to surprise and convert many a
+       scoffer.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page53"
+       id="page53"></a>{53}</span> 
+
+    <p>At the séances, to which I invited my friends and a few
+    scientific outsiders, I always courted the fullest
+    investigation, taking it as the first duty of the mesmerist to
+    show cause why he should not be put down as a charlatan. So we
+    had tests and counter-tests, evidence and counter-evidence;
+    there were doctors to feel the pulse and to scrutinise the
+    rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific ifs and
+    buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
+    progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that
+    wheel in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the
+    good faith of subject and mesmerist could be conclusively
+    proved.</p>
+
+    <p>One of these séances led to a rather amusing incident. One
+    night I was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my
+    bell, and when, after some parleying, I opened the door, I
+    found myself confronted by two individuals. One I recognised as
+    an "inquirer" who had been brought to my rooms some time
+    previously; the other was a lad I had not seen before. The
+    inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully watched my <i>modus
+    operandi</i> on the occasion of his visit, had next tried
+    experiments of his own. In this
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page54"
+       id="page54"></a>{54}</span> instance he had succeeded in
+       mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him
+       to his normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap
+       fastened round his waist, he led him through the streets of
+       Paris to my rooms. There we both tried our powers upon him,
+       the result being very unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling
+       himself freed from one operator and not subjected by the
+       other, refused allegiance to either, and, being of a
+       pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
+       out at both of us. It was not without considerable
+       difficulty that I re-mesmerised him completely, and then,
+       having previously prepared his mind to account naturally for
+       his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in awakening him, and
+       all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful, the youth
+       went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
+       and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own
+       account.</p>
+
+    <p>I would say more of my séances and all the recollections
+    they evoke, were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and
+    to Malines. Once on the experiences of those days, I have much
+    to relate&mdash;pros and cons, if you please, for that subtle
+    magnetic fluid, which, without physical
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page55"
+       id="page55"></a>{55}</span> contact, one human being can
+       transmit to another, is a ticklish one to handle. I cannot
+       pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to the
+       Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allongé, the
+       well-known French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at
+       the Ecole des Beaux Arts. A chance contact of our knees as
+       we sat closely packed with some sixty other students put me
+       on the track of a new subject, perhaps the most interesting
+       one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But of him
+       another time.</p>
+
+    <p>Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the
+    reader&mdash;that is, if natural slumber has not ere this put
+    him beyond my control&mdash;across the frontier, into the back
+    parlour of Mrs. L.'s tobacco store. There I am operating on a
+    boy&mdash;such a stupid little Flemish boy that no amount of
+    fluid could ever make him clever. How I came to treat him to
+    passes I don't remember; probably I used him as an
+    object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave
+    him a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and
+    burnt his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be
+    eaten presently, thereby making him howl and grin
+    alternately.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page56"
+       id="page56"></a>{56}</span> 
+
+    <p>In the middle of our séance Carry is called away by a
+    customer, one of the swells of Malines much addicted to a
+    poetical expression of his admiration for the fair sex in
+    general and for Carry in particular. Greatly to our
+    edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by leading
+    him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a
+    fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the
+    accompanying sketch.</p>
+
+    <p>But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even
+    scientific experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days.
+    When one stands on the threshold of a world of mysteries one
+    cannot but long to bridge over the chasm that separates one
+    from the gods, the fairies, or the fiends. To be sure, we
+    should have been glad if we could have got "light, more light"
+    thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we tried to find our
+    way as best we could in the mist. We loved that
+    never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear
+    Bohemian sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made
+    frequent inroads into the boundless land where unknown forces
+    pick up our poor dear little conception of the Impossible,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57"
+       id="page57"></a>{57}</span> and use it as the starting-point
+       of never-to-be-exhausted possibilities.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/56.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/56.png"
+             alt="A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR." />
+             </a>A MESMERIC SÉANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page59"
+       id="page59"></a>{59}</span> 
+
+    <p>Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our
+    outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one
+    or the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du
+    Maurier was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to
+    develop into Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in
+    more than one of his letters and sketches the future delineator
+    of those characters embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on
+    one occasion he depicts himself, with fixed gaze and hair
+    erect, sitting bolt upright on my hospitable sofa, thrilled and
+    overawed by the midnight presence of the uncanny, which I had
+    evoked for his benefit.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow
+    to Antwerp and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and
+    comfortable&mdash;But why, when the bleak November wind sobs
+    against the lattice and disturbs the dead ashes in the grate,
+    when everything is damned queer and dark, and that sort of
+    thing, you know&mdash;why should you make nervous fellows'
+    flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page60"
+       id="page60"></a>{60}</span> to see live fellows before
+       dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad! it's
+       horrid!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/59.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/59.png"
+             alt="THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY." /></a>THE
+             MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive
+    gathering. We always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded
+    better, but in reality there was only one room with two small
+    alcoves. Studies and sketches covered the walls or littered the
+    floor, and the genial figure of a skeleton, in very perfect
+    condition, stood in the corner by the piano. At first it came
+    with a view to instructing
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page61"
+       id="page61"></a>{61}</span> me in the Science of Anatomy,
+       but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony
+       professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus
+       natural that on those occasions when guests had been
+       convened to my rooms, he would take a leading part,
+       generally appearing gracefully draped and appropriately
+       illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background to the
+       gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation,
+       and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The
+       sounds thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow
+       limits of home, but spread far beyond it, a fact which the
+       neighbours, I am sure, would have been at any time ready
+       most emphatically to attest.</p>
+
+    <p>In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily
+    answerable for the magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound
+    to add that my example was followed and even improved upon by
+    the more lung-gifted of my companions. Amongst the milder forms
+    of entertainment was my impersonation of Rachel. That grand
+    actress I had often seen in Paris, and had, more than once,
+    shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the Tyrant, pouring
+    forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the classical
+    language of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62"
+       id="page62"></a>{62}</span> Racine and Corneille. With those
+       accents still ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and
+       there, when surrounded by sympathetic friends, the spirit
+       would sometimes move me, and I would feel&mdash;excuse the
+       conceit of youth&mdash;as if I too could have been a great
+       female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In
+       such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and
+       use the blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the
+       classical folds of the bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant,
+       hissing fearful hexameters of scorn and vituperation into
+       his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so
+       magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house
+       which was not of the most solid construction.</p>
+
+    <p>Another time the cushion yonder would be my child&mdash;the
+    orthodox long-lost one&mdash;"It is!&mdash;It is not!&mdash;It
+    is!&mdash;Let me clasp it to my other cushion!" "Toi mon fils
+    chéri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes
+    loisirs!"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page64"
+       id="page64"></a>{64}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/63.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/63.png"
+             alt="FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY." />
+             </a>FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued
+    from oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively
+    doings on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's
+    mamma," he says, "had worked a very
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page65"
+       id="page65"></a>{65}</span> pretty cap for Felix, and Felix
+       had it on the morning after his birthday, and Felix found
+       that though the cap was very pretty, it made him look very
+       seedy."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/64.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/64.png"
+             alt="'RACHEL'" /></a>"RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE
+             BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page67"
+       id="page67"></a>{67}</span> 
+
+    <p>In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the
+    friends assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had
+    come together in the evening, much in the same spirit that had
+    led them under my windows in the morning, with a brass band and
+    an enormous bouquet of cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers.
+    There, on the left, is Van Lerius with his hands in his
+    pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans, Bource, and
+    all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud
+    bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good
+    fellows! It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and
+    contemplate du Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded
+    capacity of enjoyment. I can see him taking points that fell
+    flat with the other fellows. Quite a pleasure, too, to think of
+    Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald head, of the tall and
+    the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face.</p>
+
+    <p>Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed,
+    and the whirligig of time has
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page68"
+       id="page68"></a>{68}</span> been revolving with unfailing
+       regularity, dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated,
+       some to stand, some to fall. What has become of the threads
+       of friendship, picked up at the studio or the café, perhaps
+       whilst puzzling over the chess-board, or when harmonising in
+       four-part song? Golden threads; some destined to be spun out
+       and to become solidly intertwined; others to be hopelessly
+       entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable
+       Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon
+       companions of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and
+       everywhere&mdash;perhaps nowhere! Some I see trotting
+       briskly along the high-road of life, others dragging wearily
+       through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting under
+       a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of
+       dates, fixed just above their
+       heads.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page69"
+       id="page69"></a>{69}</span> 
+    <hr />
+
+    <h2>II.</h2>
+
+    <p>I well remember a certain "barrière" that protected the
+    level crossing just outside the Malines Station. It was but an
+    ordinary piece of hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier
+    and I, can never forget it; for, as we stood by its side we
+    vowed that come what might, we would never travel along that
+    line and past the old gate without recalling that summer
+    evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days.</p>
+
+    <p>It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our
+    never-to-be-forgotten aliases&mdash;Rag and Bobtail. We had
+    chanced upon a chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that
+    old barrière, and some fortuitous circumstance having revealed
+    the fact that his initials were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him
+    Tag. Out of that very naturally grew the further development:
+    Rag, Tag, and
+    Bobtail.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page70"
+       id="page70"></a>{70}</span> 
+
+    <p>T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably
+    taller than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to
+    secure him the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at
+    the shrine of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the
+    man of six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman
+    of commanding presence, his appreciation of size culminating in
+    the love of "Chang," that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt
+    to admire, as we followed his career through the volumes of the
+    immortal Weekly, presided over by Toby and his master.</p>
+
+    <p>I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he
+    took it much or often, but he gave one the impression that
+    whatever others might do when amongst the benighted foreigner,
+    he, for one, would not let a good old English custom drop into
+    disuse. Looking at Tag one intuitively felt that his father
+    before him had taken his moderate glass of W. and W., and that,
+    if he married and had sons, they would do likewise. I do not
+    think that he was particularly fond of art or artists, unless
+    inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was engaged, or, at
+    least, he was generally just about to be
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page71"
+       id="page71"></a>{71}</span> engaged, in some business, and
+       whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence
+       operations, he would settle down to an expectant present.
+       The golden opportunity he was looking for was plainly
+       visible on his horizon, but it had a way of remaining
+       stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's nature to move
+       unless under great pressure, the two never met.</p>
+
+    <p>In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a
+    good deal with us when we were out and about, bent on storming
+    the world, or climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the
+    looking on, the parts thus being distributed to our mutual
+    satisfaction. He was always pleasantly acquiescent, and had the
+    rare gift of making himself useless agreeably; a common bond of
+    interest we had in the Colorado claro and oscuro, whether the
+    fair or dark, applied to the friendly weed or the still more
+    friendly fair sex.</p>
+
+    <p>He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote
+    to us from Paris, when he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"Since my arrival here my notes of what I have to do
+        represent what I have not done, and if it be true that the
+        infernal regions are paved
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page72"
+           id="page72"></a>{72}</span> with good intentions, I
+           shall be received on my arrival by a deputation of souls
+           to thank me for my contribution to the pavement."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <table summary="illustrations"
+           align="center">
+        <tr>
+            <td><a href="images/71-1.png"><img width="100%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/71-1.png"
+                 alt="RAG." /></a></td>
+
+            <td><a href="images/71-2.png"><img width="100%"
+                 border="0"
+                 src="images/71-2.png"
+                 alt="BOBTAIL." /></a></td>
+        </tr>
+
+        <tr>
+            <td align="center"><small>RAG.</small></td>
+
+            <td align="center"><small>BOBTAIL.</small></td>
+        </tr>
+    </table>
+
+    <p>There are sketches in which Tag's eloquence is confined to
+    one exclamation, "Matilda!" But whether that name was coupled
+    with present felicity or future hopes I do not recollect. But
+    du Maurier's lines describe him and our chumship
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73"
+       id="page73"></a>{73}</span> much better than any words of
+       mine could do. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <center>
+        "To BOBTAIL.
+    </center>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Oh, fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint</p>
+
+            <p>All lazy beggars like me&mdash;"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"In the sunshine of April, the April of life,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">You and I and our Tag make three;</p>
+
+            <p>And few will deny that for such close chums</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">A queer set of fellows are we.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>For I walk slowly, and you walk fast,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And Tag lies down (not to fall);</p>
+
+            <p><i>You</i> think of the Present, <i>I</i> think of
+            the Past,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">And Tag thinks of nothing at all.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Yet who shall be lucky, and who shall be rich?</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Whether both, neither, one, or all
+            three;</p>
+
+            <p>Is a mystery which, Dame Fortune, the witch,</p>
+
+            <p class="i2">Tells neither Tag, Bobtail, or me!</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p class="author">(RAG)."</p>
+
+    <p>The portraits of Rag and Bobtail head the page. A space was
+    left for Tag's, but never filled.</p>
+
+    <p><i>Apropos</i> of plans and prospects on Tag's distant
+    horizon, I find a passage in one of his letters, dated
+    November, 1857, which is well worth recording. I quote it to
+    give myself and my fellow Europeans an opportunity of rejoicing
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74"
+       id="page74"></a>{74}</span> that Tag's scheme belonged to
+       those that were not to be realised. It runs thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"As du Maurier's eye, though better, will, most
+        probably, not allow him to resume his profession as a
+        painter, we have determined to try our fortune together in
+        Australia, and mean to start from here early in February.
+        He hopes to obtain employment by drawing sketches,
+        caricatures, &amp;c., for the Melbourne <i>Punch</i>, and
+        other illustrated papers. You know how eminently suited he
+        is for that kind of work, and we hear that an artist of
+        talent of that description is much wanted out there, and
+        would be sure to do exceedingly well. I, of course, do not
+        intend to start in that line, but hope to be able to
+        support myself for the first few years, after which I shall
+        establish myself in business on my own account, and I
+        trust, with luck, I may return home in the course of from
+        ten to fifteen years, if not with immense riches, at all
+        events with enough to enable me to pass the remainder of my
+        'old age' in peace and comfort."</p>
+    </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page76"
+       id="page76"></a>{76}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/75.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/75.png"
+             alt="'WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I WONDER.'" />
+        </a>"WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+        HANG MYSELF, I WONDER."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Did Tag ever go, I wonder? Did he come back, and has he
+    perhaps been enjoying his "old
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77"
+       id="page77"></a>{77}</span> age" somewhere over here for the
+       last thirty years?&mdash;I wish you would say what
+       <i>has</i> become of you, my dear Tag. I'm sure we should be
+       chums again, if you're anything like the dear old
+       stick-in-the-mud of former days! Don't you recollect that
+       sketch of Rag's? I had nearly forgotten to mention it, the
+       one with the three ropes of life. I am climbing ahead with
+       fiendish energy. Rag follows, steadily ascending, weighted
+       as he is with a treasure, a box marked "Mrs. Rag, with
+       care," and your noble form is squatting on the floor, a
+       glass of the best blend at your feet, and a cigar you are
+       enjoying from which rises the legend that makes you say,
+       "What the deuce am I to do with this confounded rope? Hang
+       myself, I wonder?" Nonsense, to be sure; but do come and
+       tell me what you <i>have</i> done with the rope, or say
+       where I can find you still squatting.</p>
+
+    <p>That music of a certain spontaneous kind, the music within
+    us which we were ever longing to bring to the surface, was a
+    bond of union between du Maurier and myself, I have already
+    mentioned; but that bond was to be greatly strengthened by the
+    music that great musicians on more than one occasion lavished
+    on us. First came Louis <span class="pagenum"><a name="page78"
+       id="page78"></a>{78}</span> Brassin, the pianist. He had
+       studied under Moscheles at the Conservatorio of Leipsic, the
+       city of Bach and Mendelssohn fame; and there, from the days
+       of his boyhood, he had belonged to the little circle of
+       intimates who frequently gathered around the master at his
+       house.</p>
+
+    <p>When, a few years later, he came to Belgium on a concert
+    tour, he and I found no difficulty in taking up the old
+    friendship contracted in my father's house, just where we had
+    left it. The boy had become the man, the student had developed
+    into the artist and thorough musician. He was the boonest of
+    boon companions, and his jokes were so broad that they often
+    reminded one, in their crudeness and their rudeness, of certain
+    passages in Mozart's early letters. To say that he spoke French
+    with a German accent à la Svengali would be putting it very
+    mildly; Teutonic gutturals would most unceremoniously invade
+    the sister language; d's and t's, b's and p's would ever change
+    places, as they are made to do in some parts of the Fatherland.
+    With all that, he rejoiced in a delightful fluency of speech,
+    conveying quaint and original thought. There was something
+    decidedly interesting about Brassin's looks, but his figure
+    gave one the impression of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page80"
+       id="page80"></a>{80}</span> having been very carelessly put
+       together; when he walked his head went back on his
+       shoulders, and his hat went back on his head; his long arms
+       dangled, pendulum-like, by his sides, while his lanky legs,
+       dragging along anyhow, were ever lagging behind one another.
+       But when he opened the piano and put hands and feet to keys
+       and pedal, he was not the same individual. He would turn on
+       nerve and muscle-power, and would hurl avalanches of music
+       and torrents of notes at his audience till he, in his turn,
+       was overwhelmed with thunders of applause. And those were
+       the days, we must remember, when but few men could play at a
+       greater rate than twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; when
+       grand pianos were not yet ironclad and armour-plated, or had
+       learnt proudly to display the maker's name on their
+       broadside when they went forth to do battle on the concert
+       field.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/79.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/79.png"
+             alt="COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS." />
+             </a>COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page81"
+       id="page81"></a>{81}</span> 
+
+    <p>Brassin used to draw inane caricatures of himself, which he
+    would present to us with a triumphant laugh of immoderate
+    calibre. I have preserved some of these, but decidedly prefer
+    du Maurier's rendering of our common friend. In the
+    accompanying drawing he shows him at the piano, entertaining us
+    on "A rainy day."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page82"
+       id="page82"></a>{82}</span> 
+
+    <p>"Ah! Felix, amico mio," he says, "may thy room be always as
+    jolly, thy coffee be ever so sweet, as on that happy morning!
+    May Brassin's fingers be ever as brilliant and inspired! May
+    Tag be ever as lazy, and with equal satisfaction to himself,
+    and may I never be blinder! Amen."</p>
+
+    <p>That sketch admirably pourtrays the lankiness and flabbiness
+    of Brassin's figure, contrasting as it did with the strength of
+    the wrist and the grip of the fingers. He was certainly a fine
+    subject for du Maurier, whom I always looked upon as a sort of
+    vivisector of music and musicians, of their methods and their
+    moods. A brilliant career awaited Louis Brassin, but it was to
+    be suddenly and unexpectedly cut off. He died some ten years
+    ago at the age of forty-four.</p>
+
+    <p>In 1858 my father came on a visit to Antwerp with my mother
+    and my youngest sister, Clara. Wherever my father took up his
+    abode, even temporarily, a grand piano would in the natural
+    course of events gravitate towards him, and a select circle of
+    art lovers would soon be grouped around it. Amongst the friends
+    in the Antwerp circle were&mdash;Van Lerius, Tadema, Baron
+    Leys, Heyermans, and Bource. My sister at that time was a
+    bright and happy creature, not long
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page83"
+       id="page83"></a>{83}</span> out of her teens, full of
+       hopes&mdash;alas! never to be realised, and of talents never
+       to be matured. The large dark eyes&mdash;they seemed the
+       gift of her godmother, the famous Malibran&mdash;reflected
+       the artist's soul, and a grand soprano voice spoke its
+       powerful language. Du Maurier and she were
+       <span class="pagenum"><a name="page84"
+       id="page84"></a>{84}</span> soon on a brother and sisterly
+       footing, and they ever remained so.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/82.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/82.png"
+             alt="CLARA MOSCHELES." /></a>CLARA MOSCHELES.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Of the pleasant evenings we of the circle spent together I
+    recall one in particular. My sister had been singing one song
+    after another; my father was engaged in an animated
+    conversation with Stefani, the pianist, on the relative merits
+    of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Du Maurier and I had been sitting
+    at the farther end of the room, talking of his eyes. At that
+    time one doctor held out hopes; another, a great authority, had
+    considered it his painful duty not to conceal the truth from
+    his patient, and had, with much unction and the necessary
+    complement of professional phraseology, prepared him for the
+    worst. The sight of one eye had gone, that of the other would
+    follow. Those were anxious days, both for him and for his
+    friends; but, whatever he felt, he could talk about his trouble
+    with perfect equanimity, and I often wondered how quietly he
+    took it, and how cheerfully he would tell me that he was
+    "fearfully depressed." That evening I had been putting the
+    chances of a speedy recovery before him, and making predictions
+    based, I am bound to admit, on nothing more substantial than my
+    ardent hopes. But du Maurier
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page85"
+       id="page85"></a>{85}</span> was too much of a philosopher to
+       be satisfied with such encouragement as I could give, and
+       said: "No, I had better face the enemy and be prepared for
+       the worst. If it comes, you see, my dear fellow, there is
+       Nature's law of compensation, and I firmly believe that one
+       cannot lose one faculty without being compensated by some
+       great gain elsewhere. I suppose one gets to see more inside
+       as things grow darker outside. If one can't paint, one must
+       do something else&mdash;write perhaps; that is, as long as
+       one can, and then, if the steam accumulates, and one wants a
+       safety valve to let it off, dictate." Happily, to this day
+       he writes, and need not have recourse to dictation.</p>
+
+    <p>When we joined our friends we found Van Lerius and Heyermans
+    had been pressed into the service, and were making sketches for
+    my sister's album. Du Maurier took up a pencil, and, with a few
+    characteristic touches, drew that sister's eyes. "Quand je les
+    vois," he wrote underneath, "j'oublie les miens. (Reflexion
+    d'un futur aveugle.) When I see them I forget my own.
+    (Reflections of a man going blind.)"</p>
+
+    <p>Soon the main business of the evening was
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page86"
+       id="page86"></a>{86}</span> resumed. Was it Beethoven's
+       sonata for piano and violin, or a mighty improvisation on
+       classical themes that came first? I do not recollect; but I
+       remember that du Maurier's rendering of Balfe's "When other
+       lips and other hearts," with my scratch accompaniment, was
+       warmly greeted by all lips and hearts present.</p>
+
+    <p>When these pleasant evenings had come to an end, the
+    friendly intercourse was not allowed to drop, and so a number
+    of sketches by her new friends found their way into Miss
+    Clara's album.</p>
+
+    <p>In the following winter, when I left on a short visit to
+    Leipsic, he sent her a few lines through me. I quote from his
+    letter because the wording is peculiar, and illustrates his
+    capacity for expressing himself in a language that he had to
+    evolve from his inner consciousness:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Herr Rag schickt zu Fräulein Moscheles <i>sein</i>
+    empfehlung und <i>ihren</i> bruder; es wird höflicht gebeten
+    das sie wird die sach reciprokiren, und in fünftzen dägen
+    <i>ihr</i> empfehlung und <i>seinen</i> freund zuruck
+    schicken."</p>
+
+    <p>For the benefit of those whose inner consciousness is not in
+    touch with the above, I give the English version:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Rag sends <i>his</i> greeting and <i>her</i> brother
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87"
+       id="page87"></a>{87}</span> to Miss Moscheles, and kindly
+       requests her to reciprocate the proceeding in a fortnight by
+       returning <i>her</i> greeting and <i>his</i> friend."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/86.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/86.png"
+             alt="'HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN BRUDER.'" />
+        </a>"HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRÄULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+        UND IHREN BRUDER."
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figleft"
+         style="width:35%;">
+        <a href="images/87-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/87-1.png"
+             alt="LIX." /></a>LIX.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>When I think how easily and spontaneously such sketches
+    dropped from his pen, I am reminded of a passage in one of
+    Mendelssohn's letters to my mother; he sends her the
+    <i>Mailied</i> and says: "This morning a song came to me. I
+    really must write it down for you." So, too, from the first the
+    pen-and-ink compositions came to du Maurier. His talent
+    manifested itself not only in a desire to illustrate this or
+    that incident or adventure, but also in his inexhaustible
+    capacity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page88"
+       id="page88"></a>{88}</span> for making something out of
+       nothing, and as the nothing was never lacking, he might well
+       say: "Dear Bobtail, I will never write without sending my
+       compliments to thine album." His rendering of "Cher Lix,"
+       for instance, takes the shape of a graceful monogram, or
+       diplogram, or whatever I ought to call a combination of our
+       two profiles and my name.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/87-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/87-2.png"
+             alt="'Dear Bobtail, I write to you out of sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to pack up for the next half-hour.'" />
+        </a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He starts a short missive with a sketch of himself seated in
+    his trunk, pipe in mouth, and
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page89"
+       id="page89"></a>{89}</span> says: "Dear Bobtail, I write to
+       you out of sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to
+       pack up for the next half-hour." Or he draws himself looking
+       over my shoulder whilst I am writing to my sister and puts
+       the supposed context of my letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/88.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/88.png"
+             alt="AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY &mdash;&mdash;" />
+        </a>AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY &mdash;&mdash;
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Bobtail writes (in German of course):</p>
+
+    <p>"I won't write any more, for there's an indiscreet fellow
+    looking over my
+    &mdash;&mdash;"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page90"
+       id="page90"></a>{90}</span> 
+
+    <p>"<i>Rag</i>. It's not true, I swear. (For Miss Clara.)"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/89.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/89.png"
+             alt="DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN." /></a>DU MAURIER AT
+             WORK AGAIN.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another time he wants me to send him some brushes and
+    various other painting materials he enumerates: "Oh, and a
+    little thing like this for oil to do the thing cheesy." He
+    depicts himself quite elated; his eyes seemed so much better
+    that he had once more resumed work in the
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page91"
+       id="page91"></a>{91}</span> studio of his friend Goyers.
+       "Gruss from maternal and self," he ends; "ganz hertzlich;
+       come soon, or write soon, or do something soon, hang
+       it.&mdash;Thy RAG, jusqu' à la mort."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/90.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/90.png"
+             alt="'CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI.'" />
+        </a>"CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+        GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Monsieur Staps, Sous-Chef of the "Guides," the best military
+    band in Brussels, was a friend of ours. He had invited us to
+    one of the famous Concerts du Conservatoire, a treat in
+    anticipation of which du Maurier at once takes to the pen, and
+    shows us in classical garments and dignified attitudes
+    listening to the "young men of the Conservatorio." "Sketch
+    represents," he says <span class="pagenum"><a name="page92"
+       id="page92"></a>{92}</span> "Claudius Felix et Publius
+       Busso, cum centurione Guidorum, audientes juvenes
+       Conservatorioni, A.D. CCLVIII." The "Busso" derived from his
+       full name&mdash;George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier.</p>
+
+    <p>In striking contrast with the last drawing is the next. Here
+    we are decidedly anything but conventional in our attire, as he
+    depicts us in "Double-bedded room, Brussels. Time 11 a.m.
+    (train starts 11.20). Bobtail's face being rather smutty, he
+    washes it, and Rag's boots being rather tight, he puts them on
+    at leisure, during which process he has time to smoke three
+    pipes. <i>Bobtail</i>. Bub-bub-bub-bub ... whew ... pouf!...
+    <i>Rag</i>. How
+    many?"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page93"
+       id="page93"></a>{93}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/92.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/92.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A favourite theme of his was his supposed inability to shine
+    on occasions when I had introduced him to friends of mine, and
+    was particularly anxious to show him off to advantage, and
+    then, again, the unrelenting fate that would swiftly overtake
+    him if he ventured to put himself forward. I need not say that
+    the inability and the discomfiture existed only in his
+    imagination, for in all circles he was ever appreciated and
+    admired. But he would have it otherwise,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page95"
+       id="page95"></a>{95}</span> and pourtrays us side by side
+       with the legend&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/94.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/94.png"
+             alt="'The height of enjoyment.&lt;br /&gt; Rag thinking of his eyes, in a pair of tight boots, with Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever, you stupid muff!''" />
+        </a>"The height of enjoyment.<br />
+         Rag thinking of his eyes, in a pair of tight boots, with
+        Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever, you stupid
+        muff!'"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another drawing shows what happened when for once in a way
+    he presumed to accept the homages of the
+    fair.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page96"
+       id="page96"></a>{96}</span> 
+
+    <p>"One fine morninge, earlie, at ye Café de la Plage,
+    Blankenberghe, ye celebrated Rag, deeming himself alone,
+    treateth himself to a private performance of ye Padre furioso e
+    figlia infelice, in imitatione of his illustrious friende,
+    Felix Bobtailo. Presentlie a voice exclaimeth behind him,
+    'Monsieur, permettez moi de vous féliciter,' and a ladie
+    politelie maketh him complimente on his talente. Rag replieth
+    that she must not be surprised thereat, as hys life has been
+    spent among ye great musicians, and that therefore he can
+    scarcelie helpe being a consummate musician himselfe. Shortly
+    after as he lighteth hys cigarre at ye barre, he enquireth
+    bumptiously, 'Who might that good ladie be?' 'She is the
+    prima-donna of the Munich Opera, Monsieur.' Whereupon ye soul
+    of ye humiliated Rag sinketh into hys bootes, and he retireth
+    for ever under a perpetual extinguisher.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ye hero of ye above unfortunate adventure presenteth hys
+    compliments to Miss Clara Moscheles, and beggeth she will
+    deigne to accepte ye sketche in acknowledgment of ye last box
+    of 'acidulated lemon-flavoured droppes' entrusted to her
+    brother's care (need he remark that they have not yet reached
+    their destination).</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page97"
+       id="page97"></a>{97}</span> 
+
+    <p>"Miss Clara is invited to observe how cunninglie ye profile
+    of Rag is made to imitate that of her talented brother."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/96.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/96.png"
+             alt="YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE." />
+        </a>YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+        PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE.
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Du Maurier's stay in Blankenberghe was but short. He soon
+    went to Düsseldorf to put himself under the treatment of a
+    famous oculist, Hofrath de Leeuwe, who resided not far from
+    there at Gräfrath. He wrote, in high spirits: "Spent yesterday
+    in Gräfrath; jolly place, lots of beauties, plenty of singing
+    and sketching and that sort of thing, you know. Long walks in
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page98"
+       id="page98"></a>{98}</span> beautiful valleys, most
+       delightful. The fact is, I'm so beastly merry since I've
+       been here that I don't think I'm quite sane, and altogether
+       only want your periodical visits and permission to have my
+       fling on Saturday nights to be in heaven. Doctor says he'll
+       do me good; have to go to Gräfrath once a week. Ça me bote
+       joliment. Good-bye, my old. Thine ever</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:40%;">
+        <a href="images/97.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/97.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He had met some old acquaintances and fraternised with some
+    English and American artists, had got into the swim of Gräfrath
+    society, such as it was, and was soon placed on a pedestal,
+    whilst sundry beauties sat at his feet and, to the best of my
+    belief, sighed. "They all want me to make etchings of the
+    little can-cans and lick-spittlings going on here. Splendid
+    study; shall <span class="pagenum"><a name="page99"
+       id="page99"></a>{99}</span> think about it. Carry novel, of
+       course, adjourned <i>sine die</i>; haven't got time just
+       now&mdash;you know what a fellow I am. Just got her letter;
+       very naïve and amusing&mdash;but don't tell her so, or else
+       she will pose for that and spoil it. Here is a little
+       drawing for you. Do all honour to it, since it has met with
+       a little ovation here."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/98.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/98.png"
+             alt="AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR." /></a>AT THE HOFRATH'S
+             DOOR.<br />
+        "SHE. REALLY I DON'T SEE THE SLIGHTEST MOTE IN YOUR
+        EYES."<br />
+        "HE. NO, BUT I CAN SEE THE BEAMS IN YOURS."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>He calls it "a new adaptation from the New Testament." He
+    and a charming "she" sit waiting their turn at the Hofrath's
+    door. <i>He</i> is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100"
+       id="page100"></a>{100}</span> looking into her eyes and
+       <i>she</i> into his. "Really I don't see the slightest mote
+       in your eyes," says she. "No, but I can see the beams in
+       yours," he replies.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/99.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/99.png"
+             alt="'I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!'" />
+        </a>"I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+        DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!"
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Did du Maurier ever attempt to shave anybody, I wonder?
+    According to one of the sketches he sent me from Düsseldorf he
+    did, and was so engaged on a blind man Kennedy,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page101"
+       id="page101"></a>{101}</span> when a Captain Marius comes on
+       the scene and says, in discreet whisper and with much
+       concern, "I say, governor, mind you don't gash his throat as
+       you did that poor old Spaniard's! (<i>Out loud</i>) How d'ye
+       do, Kennedy?"</p>
+
+    <p>The same Mr. Kennedy figures once more, when, unaware of the
+    presence of the captain, he discreetly informs the professor
+    that Captain Marius Blueblast "is na' but a sinfu'
+    blackguard."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/100.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/100.png"
+             alt="MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST 'IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD.'" />
+        </a>MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE
+        PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+        BLACKGUARD."
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/101.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/101.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>A portrait he drew of the doctor was a great success. "I
+    have done the old cock's portrait
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102"
+       id="page102"></a>{102}</span> stunningly," he says; "nine
+       crosses of the Legion of Honour, &amp;c. Not a sou into my
+       pocket; all for poor-box. Fancy a fellow like me making
+       presents to the poor-box (<i>vide</i> sketch)! But as the
+       portrait will be very much spilt about (<i>répandu</i>), I
+       may fish a stray order or two. I have followed your advice
+       for a whole week and done a magnificent Framboisy. Shall not
+       attempt to go on until you are here to give me another
+       stirring-up. Am going to Antwerp next week (always am).
+       Shall you be moving too? Journey together&mdash;great fun.
+       Take care of my purse and passport, and see my trunks are
+       locked."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page103"
+       id="page103"></a>{103}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/102.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/102.png"
+             alt="MEETING IN DÜSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE." />
+        </a>MEETING IN DÜSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF
+        THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page106"
+       id="page106"></a>{106}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/103.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/103.png"
+             alt="SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:&mdash;" />
+             </a>SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:&mdash; 
+
+        <p>"Dark was the sun! Heavy the clouds on the cliffs of
+        Oithona&mdash;when the fair-headed son of the Maurialva
+        crossed his claymore with the stern dark-browed Bobthailva
+        and swore friendship on the names of Carry and Damask."</p>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page107"
+       id="page107"></a>{107}</span> 
+
+    <p>I was moving, and as du Maurier kept on being about to go to
+    Antwerp, I went to pay him a flying visit at Düsseldorf on my
+    way to Paris. We sat into the small hours of the morning (as he
+    depicts us), talking of the past, present, and future, a
+    long-necked Rhine-wine bottle and two green glasses beside us,
+    our hopes and aspirations rising with the cloud that curled
+    from my ever-glowing cigar. We talked till his fertile
+    imagination took us across the sea, and "Ragmar of the
+    Maurialva and Bobthailva, the son of Moscheles, swore eternal
+    amity on their native heath."</p>
+
+    <p>Damask was another beauty whom we appreciated, perhaps all
+    the more because we knew she was dying of consumption.</p>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p>In Paris I was probably absorbed in some work I had in hand
+    and must have neglected du Maurier, for he writes urging me to
+    answer by return of post and give an account of myself. He had
+    been visited, he says, by an alarming nightmare, which he
+    forthwith sketches for my benefit. Carry, the Circe, had
+    captured the lion. The noble beast&mdash;that was me&mdash;had
+    succumbed to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108"
+       id="page108"></a>{108}</span> wiles of the enchantress, and
+       submitted tamely to being combed and brushed and to having
+       his claws clipped by her hand. Like birds of a feather, so
+       do lions of a name, flock together. And so another noble
+       beast&mdash;that was he&mdash;is seen approaching,
+       presumably to claim his share of the combing and clipping
+       and of whatever other favours may be forthcoming.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/105.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/105.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figleft"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/106-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/106-1.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Another time when, I suppose, I was again letting him wait
+    for an answer, he writes from Düsseldorf: "DEAR
+    BOBTAIL,&mdash;Est-ce que tu te donnes le genre de m'oublier
+    par hazard? I <span class="pagenum"><a name="page109"
+       id="page109"></a>{109}</span> have been expecting a letter
+       from you every day, running thus: 'DEAR RAG,&mdash;Come to
+       Paris <i>immediately</i>, to illustrate thirty-six
+       periodical papers which I have got for you. In haste,
+       Bobtail.' My old pal, Tom Armstrong, is here, working hard;
+       eyes the same as ever. Write soon and tell all about that
+       portrait. Düsseldorf rencontre was jolly." The letter is
+       headed by a drawing representing me soaring heavenwards,
+       whilst he, chained to the spot, is philosophically
+       consulting the cards on his prospects of release.</p>
+
+    <div class="figright"
+         style="width:60%;">
+        <a href="images/106-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/106-2.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page110"
+       id="page110"></a>{110}</span> 
+
+    <p>Then comes a postscript: "Going in for this sort of
+    thing."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:90%;">
+        <a href="images/107-1.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/107-1.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Will you come old fellow and be</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:70%;">
+        <a href="images/107-2.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/107-2.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>I suppose I answered saying that I only put off writing till
+    I had mustered the full complement of periodicals. If I was in
+    a prophetic mood I may have added that it was all right, and
+    that very shortly thirty-six editors would be clamouring for
+    his work, and perhaps thirty-six States hallooing for him to
+    come over <i>immediately</i>.
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page111"
+       id="page111"></a>{111}</span> Hoping to be punch'd at an
+       early date, I probably remained his, &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+    <p>The early date came, for, before his final return to
+    England, we met once more in Antwerp and Malines. And that
+    takes me back to Carry. She was changed to her advantage, so,
+    at least, the world of Malines thought. We were not quite so
+    sure that the change would prove altogether to her advantage.
+    She had been quite pretty enough before, and we thought she
+    could well have done without developing further physical
+    attractions. She had always known how to use her eyes, not
+    unfrequently shedding their beneficent light on two persons at
+    the same time, and we considered that that number should not be
+    exceeded. But now their activity seemed daily increasing, and
+    it was not without concern that we noticed in her a certain
+    restlessness and a growing tendency to discuss with the serpent
+    questions relating to the acquisition of prohibited apples.
+    After a while, and perhaps in consequence of the good advice we
+    gave her, she sobered down and surprised us by her docility;
+    but at best her moods were uncertain and she puzzled us
+    much.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page112"
+       id="page112"></a>{112}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/109.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/109.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Now, Bobtail," said Rag, as we walked along the sober old
+    streets of Malines, discussing the state of Carry's mind and
+    heart. (He has omitted the streets, but has put us into our
+    very best mediæval suit.) "Now, Bobtail, what do
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page113"
+       id="page113"></a>{113}</span> you think? Is she in love? And
+       if so, with whom?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She may be, or she may be not," said Bobtail, with oracular
+    discretion; "but, if she is, it can only be with one of us. She
+    would not waste her sentiment on a native whilst we were within
+    reach."</p>
+
+    <p>"But which of us is it?" asked Rag, somewhat alarmed.</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not; but I hope neither," answered the oracle thus
+    appealed to; "but the state of her mind, I believe, is this: If
+    she were to marry you, she would fall in love with me; and if
+    she were to marry me, she would fall in love with you."</p>
+
+    <p>This dictum must have impressed du Maurier, for it started
+    him on a series of drawings, with accompanying text in
+    illustration of it. There were to be two volumes. The first, in
+    which I figure as the husband, was rapidly produced; the
+    second, in which he was to be the husband, never saw the light
+    of day. It was shelved <i>sine die</i>, a proceeding I always
+    thought particularly unfair, as he never gave <i>me</i> a
+    chance of being loved. I am compensated, however, by the
+    possession of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114"
+       id="page114"></a>{114}</span> "Cari-catures," as they are
+       called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/111.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/111.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"If Carry were to marry one of us,</p>
+
+            <p>I'd give thee any odds she would be safe,</p>
+
+            <p>O Rag, to love the other&mdash;"</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p class="i4">(<i>Shakespere</i>. "<i>Two Swells of
+            Antwerp</i>.")</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story
+    illustrates the truth of the poet's words. His points will be
+    so much better understood later on, when some of the problems
+    connected with our matrimonial laws have been solved, that it
+    would be a pity to publish them prematurely. Suffice it to show
+    how Félix and Georges produced the portrait of Picciola. "Félix
+    put all his talent and Georges all his good will into it, for,
+    once completed, Picciola was to select a husband from the two
+    suitors. After much cogitation she decides for Félix, whilst
+    offering her friendship to Georges, who seems
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page115"
+       id="page115"></a>{115}</span> but moderately satisfied with
+       this arrangement; and then, when husband and wife leave for
+       distant countries, Georges, who cannot bear the thought of
+       being parted from his dear Picciola, enters the service of
+       the young couple and accompanies them on their honeymoon."
+       This mythical journey gives the author opportunities for the
+       subtle psychological analysis of a young lady's heart,
+       strongly inclined to revolt against some of the conventions
+       laid down by Society for its regulation.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/112.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/112.png"
+             alt="PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA." /></a>PORTRAIT OF
+             PICCIOLA.
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page116"
+       id="page116"></a>{116}</span> 
+
+    <p>We had fondly hoped we might escort and protect her on the
+    thorny path of life, as pertinently shown in the
+    drawing,<a id="footnotetag3"
+       name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>
+       where we are all three going along, our arms and hands
+       fraternally intertwined and linked together in perfect
+       symmetry, as if therewith to tie the knot of friendship and
+       make it fast for ever and a day.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/113.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/113.png"
+             alt="'ON THEIR HONEYMOON.'" /></a>"ON THEIR
+             HONEYMOON."
+    </div>
+
+    <p>But it was not to be. A big wave intervened to
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page117"
+       id="page117"></a>{117}</span> separate us, and swept away
+       all traces of the road before us. Poor Carry! Yes, she had a
+       story. Sad. Bright. Then sad again. First she gave to Amor
+       what was Amor's, and then to Hymen what was Hymen's. She
+       tasted of the apple her friend the serpent had told her so
+       much about. Then&mdash;"la femme à une chute est rare comme
+       le Niagara"&mdash;and there are more apples than one in the
+       Garden of Eden&mdash;she tried another; such a bad one
+       unfortunately. It was a wonder it didn't poison her, body
+       and soul, but it didn't. There was a moment when the Angel
+       with the flaming sword threatened to cast her adrift, and it
+       would have fared badly with her had not a helping hand come
+       to save her. But sound as she was at the core, and true, she
+       rallied and rose again to new life and unhoped-for
+       happiness. It was a young doctor who came to the rescue; a
+       mere boy he seemed to look at; but a man he was in deed and
+       word. He worked hard and walked fast; he defied convention
+       and challenged fate. With a stout heart he laboured to raise
+       Carry to the level of his affections, and with a strong hand
+       he tightened his hold upon her. He loved her passionately,
+       devotedly, and she, clinging to him as to the instrument of
+       her <span class="pagenum"><a name="page118"
+       id="page118"></a>{118}</span> salvation, gradually regained
+       her better self, and, slowly but surely, learnt to find in
+       her own heart the greatest of treasures that woman can
+       bestow upon man. But he was a Southerner of the French
+       meridional type, excitable and impulsive, and, so, alas! he
+       was jealous of Carry's northern friends and snapped the
+       thread asunder that bound her to them. We only knew, and
+       that we learnt in a roundabout way, that she was the
+       happiest little wife in Paris. Once, and only once, she
+       wrote to us, to tell us how complete was her happiness. A
+       crowning glory had come; a little glory to nurse and fondle,
+       to cry over&mdash;tears of joy; to smile to&mdash;the
+       prettiest, foolishest of mother's smiles; to pray for and to
+       worship from the bottom of her little blossoming soul. It
+       was not till three years later that I was in Paris and
+       succeeded in picking up the thread of Carry's story. Hale
+       and hearty, overflowing with health and happiness, the young
+       doctor had gone to his work at the hospital. He came home
+       blood-poisoned, to die in his wife's arms. It was a case of
+       self-sacrifice in the cause of science, of heroic devotion
+       to a fellow-creature. And the young widow was left alone
+       again, with none to weep over (tears of anguish this time)
+       but the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page119"
+       id="page119"></a>{119}</span> little glory, who, poor thing,
+       could only wonder, but not soothe. What can have become of
+       Carry once more cast adrift in Paris to fight the battle of
+       life in this hard ever love-making world?</p>
+
+    <p>We never knew.</p>
+
+    <p>Back to England. The time had come when&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Who was to be lucky and who to be rich,</p>
+
+            <p>Who'd get to the top of the tree;</p>
+
+            <p>Was a mystery which</p>
+
+            <p>Dame Fortune, the witch,</p>
+
+            <p><i>Was</i> to tell du Maurier and me."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figright"
+         style="width:45%;">
+        <a href="images/116.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/116.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>What with the boxing-gloves and one thing and another, he
+    had been "getting English again by degrees." In a drawing he
+    shows us how he is going through the process arm-in-arm with
+    his old friend, Tom Armstrong, now the Art-Director of that
+    very English institution, the South Kensington Museum.
+    Armstrong and T.R. Lamont, the man who to this day bears such a
+    striking resemblance to our friend the Laird,
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120"
+       id="page120"></a>{120}</span> had presented du Maurier with
+       a complete edition of Edgar Allan Poe's works. His
+       appreciation of that author is expressed in a letter which
+       he addressed to Armstrong, and it needs not much reading
+       between the lines to gather what was the literary diet best
+       suited to his taste. It is amusing, too, to notice the
+       little shadows cast here and there by coming events.</p>
+
+    <p>(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time
+    being, synonymous with George du Maurier.)</p>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>"Gulielmus Barlow, Thomasino Armstrong,</p>
+
+            <p>Whom we hope is 'gaillardement' getting along</p>
+
+            <p>And salubrious, ave!</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p class="i10">You'll wonder, I ween,</p>
+
+            <p>At Barlow's turning topsy-tur&mdash;poet I mean.</p>
+
+            <p>I take odds you'll exclaim, 'twixt a grunt and a
+            stare,</p>
+
+            <p>'Gottferdummi' the beggar's gone mad, I declare,</p>
+
+            <p>And his wits must have followed his
+            'peeper'&mdash;not so;</p>
+
+            <p>He will give you the wherefore, will William
+            Barlow&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Viz: he's so seedy and blue, he's so deucedly
+            triste,</p>
+
+            <p>He's so d&mdash;&mdash;d out of sorts, he's so
+            d&mdash;&mdash;d out of tune,</p>
+
+            <p>That for mere consolation he cannot resist</p>
+
+            <p>The temptation of holding with Tommy commune.</p>
+
+            <p>Then that <i>he</i> should be bothered alone, isn't
+            fair,</p>
+
+            <p>So he'll just bother <i>you</i> a bit, pour se
+            distraire,</p>
+
+            <p>This will partly account for the milk&mdash;then the
+            fact is</p>
+
+            <p>That some heavy swell says that it's deuced good
+            practice,</p>
+
+            <p>And then it's a natural consequence, too,</p>
+
+            <p>Of the classical culture he's just been put
+            through.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page121"
+               id="page121"></a>{121}</span> 
+
+            <p>I'll explain: T'other day the maternal did say,</p>
+
+            <p>'You are sadly deficient in reading, Bill; nay</p>
+
+            <p>Do not wrinkle your forehead and turn up your
+            nose</p>
+
+            <p>(That elegant feature of William Barlow's!)</p>
+
+            <p>You've read Thackeray, Dickens, I know; but it's
+            fit</p>
+
+            <p>You should study the <i>classical</i> authors a
+            bit.</p>
+
+            <p>Heaven knows when your sight will be valid
+            again,</p>
+
+            <p>You may throw down the pencil and take up the
+            pen,</p>
+
+            <p>And you cannot have too many strings to your
+            bow.'</p>
+
+            <p>&mdash;'A-a-amen!' says young William to Mrs.
+            Barlow.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>So we're treated (our feelings we needn't
+            define)</p>
+
+            <p>To a beastly slow book called the 'Fall and
+            Decline'</p>
+
+            <p>By a fellow called Gibbon, be d&mdash;&mdash;d to
+            him; then</p>
+
+            <p>Comes the 'Esprit des lois et des moeurs,' from the
+            pen</p>
+
+            <p>Of a chap hight <i>Voltaire</i>&mdash;un
+            pédant&mdash;qui je crois</p>
+
+            <p>Ne se fichait pas mal et des moeurs et des lois.</p>
+
+            <p>After which just to vary the pleasures,
+            <i>Rousseau</i></p>
+
+            <p>By Emile&mdash;no: Emile by <i>Rousseau</i>? Gad! I
+            know</p>
+
+            <p>That which ever it be it's infernally slow,</p>
+
+            <p>And I'm glad Billy's neither Emile nor
+            Rousseau&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Such my fate is to listen to, longing to
+            slope&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Then come horrid long epics of Dryden and Pope,</p>
+
+            <p>Which I mentally swear a big oath I'll confine</p>
+
+            <p>To the tombs of the Capulets, every line&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Not but what the old beggars may do in their
+            way,</p>
+
+            <p>Gad! Uncommonly fine soporifics are they;</p>
+
+            <p>But they seem after Tennyson, Shelley, and Poe</p>
+
+            <p>Just a trifle <i>too</i> Rosy for Billy
+            Barlow&mdash;</p>
+
+            <p>Oh, dear Raggedy, oh!</p>
+
+            <p>Ulalume and Ænone for William Barlow.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Erst, they're short. Then they breathe in their
+            mystical tone</p>
+
+            <p>An essence, a spirit, a draught which alone</p>
+
+            <p>Can content Billy's lust, for the weird and
+            unknown</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page122"
+               id="page122"></a>{122}</span> 
+
+            <p>(Billy's out of his depth) they've an undefined
+            sense</p>
+
+            <p>Of the infinite 'mersed in their sorrow intense</p>
+
+            <p>(Billy's sinking! A rope! Some one quick! Damn it!
+            hence</p>
+
+            <p>That mystical feeling so sweetly profound</p>
+
+            <p>Which weaves round the senses a spell (Billy's
+            drowned)</p>
+
+            <p>(Here run for the drags of the Royal Humane!)</p>
+
+            <p>A mystical feeling, half rapture, half pain,</p>
+
+            <p>Such as moves in sweet melodies, such as
+            entrances</p>
+
+            <p>In Chopin's 'Etudes,' and in Schubert's
+            'Romances.'</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="stanza">
+            <p>Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'!</p>
+
+            <p>Have you ever heard these pretty decently
+            played?</p>
+
+            <p>If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe</p>
+
+            <p>That a treat most delicious you have in reserve.</p>
+
+            <p>Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of
+            clover,</p>
+
+            <p>While Stefani rapidly fingers them over,</p>
+
+            <p>Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over.</p>
+
+            <p>Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream</p>
+
+            <p>Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme,</p>
+
+            <p>Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme!</p>
+
+            <p>Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem,</p>
+
+            <p>In their sad wild unresting irregular flow</p>
+
+            <p>Just expressly concocted for William Barlow.</p>
+
+            <p>Oh! dear Raggedy, oh!</p>
+
+            <p>Why, they ravish the heart, sir, of Billy
+            Barlow."</p>
+        </div>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Du Maurier's stay on the Continent had come to a close some
+    time before mine, and to that circumstance I owe several
+    letters in which he speaks of his first experiences in London.
+    He revelled in the metamorphosis he was going
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123"
+       id="page123"></a>{123}</span> through, and illustrated the
+       past and the present for my better comprehension. There on
+       one side of the Channel he shows the dejected old lion of
+       Malines gnawing his tobaccoless clay pipe, and then on the
+       other the noble beast stalking along jauntily with tail
+       erect and havannah alight. He wrote in high
+       spirits:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/120.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/120.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"DEAR BOBTAIL,&mdash;I need not tell you how very jolly
+        it was to get your letter and to hear good news of you. My
+        reason for not writing was that I intended to make my
+        position before giving of my news to anybody. I was just
+        funky and blue about it at first, but fortunately I was
+        twigged almost immediately, and, barring my blessed
+        idleness, am getting on splendaciously just now. Lots of my
+        things have been out. I'm going in for becoming a
+        swell.</p>
+
+        <p>"How strange to think of such a change. I'm
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124"
+           id="page124"></a>{124}</span> leading the merriest of
+           lives, and only hope it will last. Living with Henley,
+           No. 85, Newman Street; very jolly and comfortable.
+           Chumming with all the old Paris fellows again, all of
+           them going ahead. There's Whistler is already one of the
+           great celebrities here&mdash;Poynter getting on. This is
+           a very jolly little village, and I wish you were over
+           here. They do make such a fuss with an agreeable fellow
+           like you or me, for instance. But I suppose Paris is
+           just as jolly in its way. My ideas of Paris are all
+           Bohème, quartier latin, &amp;c., et si c'était à
+           recommencer, ma foi je crois que je dirais 'zut.' This
+           is a hurried and absurd letter to write to an old pal
+           like you, but I hardly ever have time for a
+           line&mdash;out late every night and make use of what
+           little daylight there is in Newman Street to draw. 'S'il
+           faisait au moins clair de Lune pendant le jour dans ce
+           sacré pays.' I daresay I shall treat myself to a trip
+           over to Paris as soon as the weather is jollier. I
+           intend to go abroad this summer to do some etchings 'qui
+           seront aux pommes.' Is there any chance whatever of your
+           coming over here before? You mustn't form your opinion
+           of my performances by what you may happen to see, as
+           half of what I do is spoiled by bad engraving (that's
+           why I intend <span class="pagenum"><a name="page125"
+           id="page125"></a>{125}</span> to etch), and what I have
+           done, bar one or two things, are merely little chic
+           sketches for money. I have many plans; among others I
+           intend to bring out a series in <i>Punch</i>, with which
+           I shall take peculiar care&mdash;something quite
+           original. I think you would precious soon get more
+           portraits than you could paint here, but if you are
+           getting on so well in Paris, of course it would be
+           madness to leave. But I do not like the idea of your not
+           being one of us&mdash;such a band of brothers full of
+           jolly faults that dovetail beautifully. It was quite a
+           freak of mine coming over here; I did it against
+           everybody's advice&mdash;came over with a ten-pound note
+           and made the rest. 'Your friend Bobtail seems to be the
+           only man who had no doubt of your talent,' writes my
+           mother. 'Enfin c'est prouvé que je suis au moins bon a
+           quelque chose.' Do you go much into the world? I go
+           knocking about as happily as possible, singing and
+           smoking cigars everywhere. Jimmy Whistler and I go
+           'tumbling' together, as Thackeray says. Would you were
+           here to tumble with us! Enfin, mon bon, écris moi
+           vite."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>When at last I too returned to London I was privileged to
+    take my humble share in the "tumbling," as also in the steady
+    process that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126"
+       id="page126"></a>{126}</span> was gradually to wean us from
+       Bohemia. We tumbled pretty regularly into the Pamphilon, a
+       restaurant within a stone's throw of Oxford Circus, of the
+       familiar type that exhibits outside its door a bill of fare
+       with prices appended, to be studied by those who count their
+       shillings and pence as we did. We had got beyond the days
+       when no wines are sour and when tough meat passes muster, if
+       there is only plenty of it; we wanted a sound dinner, and we
+       got it at the Pamphilon; to wind up we adjourned to the
+       coffee-room and talked and read and smoked.</p>
+
+    <p>Stacey Marks, Poynter, Jimmy Whistler, and Charles Keene
+    were among the crew, and others not so well known to fame.
+    Pleasant hours those and gemüthliche, as the Germans say; how
+    different the after-dinner clay pipe or cheap weed of those
+    times to the post-prandial havannah we now complacently whiff
+    at our friend's Mæcenas' hospitable table! Yes, things have
+    changed, my dear Rag, since the day we were paying our bill,
+    and you addressed the waiter with superb affability: "Here,
+    Charles, is a penny for you. I know it isn't much, but I can't
+    afford more."</p>
+
+    <p>It is hard to fancy anything less like Bohemia than Regent
+    Street, but a little incident that
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page127"
+       id="page127"></a>{127}</span> occurred as I walked down that
+       busy thoroughfare one afternoon recalls the best traditions
+       of the land in which practical jokes abound. I was going
+       along without any definite aim, killing time and gathering
+       wool, flanéing, in fact; perhaps there was a touch of the
+       foreigner about me, for I had only lately returned from
+       abroad; anyway I suddenly found myself singled out as a fit
+       subject to be victimised. I felt a hand stealthily sliding
+       into my pocket; on the spur of the moment I grasped that
+       hand in as much of an iron grip as I could muster.
+       Then&mdash;I hardly know why&mdash;I waited quite a number
+       of seconds before I turned round. When I did, it was du
+       Maurier's face that I beheld, blanched with terror. Those
+       seconds had been ages to him. Good heavens! had he made a
+       mistake? Was it not Bobtail's but another man's hand that
+       was clutching his wrist? Thank Heaven, it was Bobtail's!</p>
+
+    <p>There never was an occasion, before or after, I feel
+    absolutely sure, when du Maurier was more truly glad to see me.
+    His colour rapidly returned, and he swore that of all the
+    bonnes blagues this was the best; but for all that, one thing
+    is certain&mdash;he has never since attempted to pick pockets
+    in Regent Street.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page128"
+       id="page128"></a>{128}</span> 
+
+    <p>A delightful compromise between Bohemia and the land where
+    well-regulated Society rules supreme, was the ground on which
+    stood Moray Lodge, the residence of Arthur Lewis, the head of
+    the well-known firm of Lewis and Allenby.</p>
+
+    <p>We have read of him before:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"Sir Lewis Cornelys, as everybody knows, lives in a
+        palace on Campden Hill, a house of many windows, and,
+        whichever window he looks out of, he sees his own garden
+        and very little else. There was no pleasanter or more
+        festive house than his in London, winter or summer."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>I quote this, as probably it may not be known to everybody
+    that Sir Lewis was knighted on the memorable occasion of
+    Trilby's birthday, when she was presented at the
+    drawing&mdash;and every other&mdash;room. With much kindly
+    fore-thought his friend and biographer allows him to be eighty
+    years old in the early sixties, thereby enabling him to have
+    attained to-day the ripe old age of one hundred and
+    fourteen.</p>
+
+    <p>Well, he was one of du Maurier's earliest friends, and when
+    Taffy the Laird, and Little Billie, "a-smokin' their pipes and
+    cigyars," told the cabby to drive to Mechelen Lodge, I found my
+    way to what I called Moray Lodge, and met
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page129"
+       id="page129"></a>{129}</span> them there. And there too, to
+       be sure, was Glorioli, "the tall, good-looking swarthy
+       foreigner from whose scarcely parted, moist, thick, bearded
+       lips issued the most ravishing sounds that had ever been
+       heard from throat of man or woman or boy."</p>
+
+    <p>As we now empty one or the other of the million bottles that
+    are about, marked "De Soria, Bordeaux," we often think with
+    gratitude of the great wine-grower and still greater singer, so
+    correctly described as "singing best for love or glory in the
+    studios of his friends."</p>
+
+    <p>To return to Arthur Lewis:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>He occupied an exceptional position, inasmuch as he had made
+    his house a centre towards which intellectual London
+    gravitated. When he had done this, that, and the other to make
+    his bachelor days memorable to a host of friends, he wound up
+    by marrying one of England's fairest women, our great actress,
+    Kate Terry. It was in those early days that Ellen, the
+    débutante, was introduced to the dramatic world as "Kate
+    Terry's sister." Since then Kate, having elected to rest on her
+    laurels, is proud to be referred to by the younger generation
+    as "Ellen Terry's
+    sister."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page130"
+       id="page130"></a>{130}</span> 
+
+    <p>In early life Lewis had various roads open to him. Born, as
+    he was, with the capacity of a man of business, the means and
+    opportunities of a man of leisure, and the talents of an
+    artist, he managed to follow the three roads at the same time,
+    and they all led to well-deserved success. He was to be found
+    at his desk in Regent Street, at his easel in the studio, or on
+    the threshold of that big billiard and reception room which he
+    had built to entertain his friends. Himself an artist, and for
+    many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was on
+    terms of close friendship with the men who had made their mark
+    in the art-world, and with many who were destined to become
+    famous. He was a Mæcenas of the right sort, knowing a good
+    thing when he came across it, and frequently acquiring it
+    before the sleepy world awoke to its merits.</p>
+
+    <p>I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he welcomed the
+    first pictures Joseph Israels exhibited in England in 1862.
+    Neither in the English nor in the Dutch department of the
+    Exhibition could he ascertain whether these two pictures, "The
+    Drowned Fisherman" and "Washing the Cradle," were for sale. But
+    luck would have it that he was introduced to Israels
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page131"
+       id="page131"></a>{131}</span> at the Academy <i>soirée</i>,
+       and the artist, assuring him that the pictures were
+       "certainly for sale," Lewis secured the coveted works, and
+       was thus the first to establish Israels' fame in
+       England.</p>
+
+    <p>The gatherings in Moray Lodge were unique in their way. It
+    was characteristic of the master and the house that they made
+    everybody feel at home, from the titled aristocrat in the
+    dress-suit to the free-and-easy brother-brush or pen, and the
+    sometimes out-at-elbow friend Bohemian.</p>
+
+    <p>There was the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lorne, Lord
+    Dufferin, Mr. Frederic Leighton, Associate of the Royal
+    Academy, Fred Walker, who sang tenor in the choir, of which
+    more presently, and who on several occasions designed the cards
+    of invitation for Lewis. There was Lord Houghton, Charles
+    Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rossetti, Landseer, Daubigny, Gustave
+    Doré, Arthur Sullivan, Leech, Keene, Tenniel, &amp;c., &amp;c.
+    It is as hard to pass those names over without comment as it
+    must have been to run the gauntlet of Scylla and Charybdis, for
+    every one of them brings back some recollection, and calls upon
+    the pen to start a paragraph with an "I well remember."</p>
+
+    <p>But that would lead me away from Moray
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page132"
+       id="page132"></a>{132}</span> Lodge and the famous Saturday
+       evenings, and I never was, and am not now, in a hurry to get
+       away from that hospitable mansion.</p>
+
+    <p>The billiard-table was boxed over on the gala nights and
+    transformed into a buffet. It was covered with bottles and
+    glasses, pipes and cigars, and towards the close of the evening
+    with mountains of oysters. The amount we consumed on one
+    occasion was 278 dozen, as I happen to know. But the great
+    attraction at these gatherings was the part-singing of the
+    twenty-five "Moray Minstrels." John Foster was the conductor,
+    and led them to such perfection that the severest critic of the
+    day, dear old crabbed Henry F. Chorley, proclaimed them the
+    best representatives of the English school of glee-singing.</p>
+
+    <p>Another no less interesting feature was the performance of
+    small theatrical pieces. Du Maurier and Harold Power had given
+    us charming musical duologues, like "Les Deux Aveugles," by
+    Offenbach, and "Les Deux Gilles," with great success, and that
+    led to further developments and far-reaching consequences. A
+    small party of friends were dining with Lewis. "What shall we
+    get up next?" was the question
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page133"
+       id="page133"></a>{133}</span> raised. "Something new and
+       original," suggested the host. "Now, Sullivan, you should
+       write us something." "All right," said Sullivan, "but how
+       about the words? Where's the libretto?" "Oh, I'll write
+       that," said Burnand. And thus those two were started. "Cox
+       and Box," a travesty of "Box and Cox," was read and
+       rehearsed a fortnight afterwards at Burnand's house, and the
+       following Saturday it was performed at Moray Lodge. Du
+       Maurier was "Box," Harold Power "Cox," and John Foster
+       "Sergeant Bouncer." Du Maurier's rendering of "Hush-a-by,
+       Bacon," was so sympathetic and tender that one's heart went
+       out to the contents of the frying-pan, wishing them pleasant
+       dreams.</p>
+
+    <p>Then there was his famous duet with "Box," reciting their
+    marriage to one and the same lady, and the long recitative in
+    which the printer describes his elaborate preparations for
+    suicide.</p>
+
+    <p>How he solemnly walked to the cliff and heard the seagulls'
+    mournful cry&mdash;and looked all around&mdash;there was nobody
+    nigh. Then (disposing his bundle on the brink)&mdash;"Away to
+    the opposite side I walked." ("Away" on the high A, that
+    Sullivan put in on purpose for du
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page134"
+       id="page134"></a>{134}</span> Maurier, who possessed that
+       chest-note in great fulness.)</p>
+
+    <p>I must skip a few years and speak of a drawing that appeared
+    in <i>Punch</i> in 1875,<a id="footnotetag4"
+       name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a>
+       and which has a special interest for me; it brings back to
+       my mind a happy thought of du Maurier's, which is closely
+       connected with a particularly happy thought of my own, that
+       took root then and has flourished ever since.</p>
+
+    <p>I must explain that there was a time when I had to console
+    myself with the reflection that the course of true love never
+    runs smooth. A lady whom in my mind I had selected as a
+    mother-in-law, by no means reciprocated my feelings of respect
+    and goodwill. But the young lady, her daughter, fortunately
+    sided with me, and had, in fact, given her very willing consent
+    to the change in her mother's position which I had suggested. I
+    was naturally anxious to assure that young lady as frequently
+    and as emphatically as possible how much I appreciated her
+    assistance, and how determined I was never to have any other
+    mother-in-law but the one of my choice; nor could there be
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page135"
+       id="page135"></a>{135}</span> anything obscure in such a
+       declaration, as of three sisters in the family that
+       particular one was the only unmarried one. But neither in
+       obscure nor in explicit language was I allowed to approach
+       her; a blockade was declared and rigorously enforced, and we
+       were soon separated by a distance of some few hundred
+       miles.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/132.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/132.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page137"
+       id="page137"></a>{137}</span> 
+
+    <p>I can look back complacently on the troubles of those days
+    now that twenty years have elapsed since I emerged victorious
+    from the contest; but then the future looked blank and bleak,
+    and I felt nonplussed and down-hearted. Knowing, however, what
+    a faint heart is said never to win, I was anxious to keep mine
+    up to the mark, and with a view to stimulating its buoyancy I
+    went to make a friendly call on du Maurier. He would, I felt
+    sure, be sympathetic, and, whatever else might be wanting in
+    that troublesome eye of his, there would be a certain vivifying
+    twinkle in it that could always set me up.</p>
+
+    <p>It was as I expected, and I had the full benefit of the eye,
+    and of an ear, too, that he lent willingly as I told him how
+    matters stood.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," he said, "if you can't smuggle in a
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138"
+       id="page138"></a>{138}</span> letter, let's smuggle in your
+       portrait. It will be rather a joke if she comes across you
+       in <i>Punch</i>. I've just got a subject in which I can use
+       you."</p>
+
+    <p>To be sure, I jumped at the idea, only beseeching him to
+    make me as handsome as he possibly could, without losing sight
+    of the main object, viz., that the young lady should be able to
+    recognise me. Her mother too, I felt sure, would not fail to be
+    duly impressed, for to figure in <i>Punch</i> would raise me in
+    her estimation as a person of no small importance.</p>
+
+    <p>The drawing was made and published, and the scheme worked
+    well; coupled, perhaps, with a few millions of other
+    influences, and with the assistance of the Fates, it achieved
+    the desired result, and before a year had elapsed the original
+    drawing could be presented by du Maurier to the young lady, now
+    become a bride, as a memento of bygone troubles.</p>
+
+    <p>One more digression suggested by the name of Arthur
+    Sullivan; it shall be the last. I am not going back to the time
+    when we were boys together in Leipsic, but will only mention
+    him in connection with Carry; this time Carry in another
+    form.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page139"
+       id="page139"></a>{139}</span> 
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:100%;">
+        <a href="images/137.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/137.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page141"
+       id="page141"></a>{141}</span> 
+
+    <p>Shortly after that big wave intervened that separated her
+    from us a happy chance put me in possession of a dog, the most
+    affectionate and lovable of Skye terriers.</p>
+
+    <p>I named him Carry.</p>
+
+    <p>That dog, his qualities and virtues, and especially his
+    musical gifts, deserve more than a passing mention; but,
+    trusting that he, like every dog, will have his day, I will
+    here only transcribe a letter of his that he wrote with the
+    assistance of his friend, Arthur Sullivan, who, attracted
+    perhaps by the gifts above named, had kindly taken charge of
+    him during my temporary absence on the Continent. Poor dog! He
+    is dead now; so that there can be no indiscretion in publishing
+    his bark and its translation. The former is best given in its
+    original setting. The latter, purporting to be a "Translation
+    of the foregoing by A.S.," runs as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <blockquote>
+        <p>"MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED MASTER,&mdash;My kind friend, Mr.
+        Sullivan, who pretends to be as fond of me as you are, has
+        taken me away from the enjoyment of a delicious mutton
+        bone, in order to answer your letter; and as I cannot find
+        a pen to suit me well, he is writing whilst I dictate.
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page142"
+           id="page142"></a>{142}</span> I was very low-spirited
+           the other day after leaving you, and appeared to feel
+           the parting very much, but it soon wore off under the
+           influence of biscuit, bones, and kindness; indeed, I
+           must do Sully and his family the justice to say that
+           they try to do the utmost to make me happy and
+           comfortable, although they don't always succeed, for
+           sometimes I appear dissatisfied (hoping,
+           <i>entre-nous</i>, by that means to get more out of
+           them).</p>
+
+        <p>"I have several idiosyncrasies and failings, of which my
+        master (<i>pro tem.</i>) is trying to correct me, but finds
+        it rather hard work, for I am not so easily brought out of
+        them. I have a will of my own, but Sully says: 'Train up a
+        dog in the way it should go, and he will not depart,
+        &amp;c., &amp;c.'&mdash;and Sully is right.</p>
+
+        <p>"Don't you think it is a bad plan to wash me with soap?
+        I think it deters me from licking my skin, and consequently
+        from having those ideas of cleanliness engendered within me
+        which are so necessary to every well-bred dog moving in
+        good society!</p>
+
+        <p>"I want to get back to my bone, but Sully says I must
+        first deliver a message from him. You are to give his love
+        to your dear parents
+        <span class="pagenum"><a name="page143"
+           id="page143"></a>{143}</span> (in which I heartily
+           join), and tell them how grieved he was that he did not
+           see them to wish them 'God speed' before they left
+           England, and how it hurt him to think that a long, long
+           time would perhaps elapse before he should see them
+           again.</p>
+
+        <p>"And now, my dear master, I must say 'Good-bye.' Much
+        love in few words, in which Sully joins me.</p>
+
+        <p>"Believe me, ever your</p>
+
+        <p>"Attached and faithful
+        dog,</p><a href="images/140.png"><img class="inline"
+             src="images/140.png"
+             width="50%"
+             alt="Carry X his mark" /></a> 
+
+        <p>"F. MOSCHELES, Esq."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <p>And now I come to du Maurier's last letter&mdash;the best,
+    as I am sure every right-minded person will admit. I have kept
+    it "pour la bonne bouche" (excuse my quoting French. "Will me
+    not of it," as our neighbours say; there are unassailable
+    precedents for such quoting, you know&mdash;or ought to know).
+    The letter in question speaks of an event so momentous, that of
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page144"
+       id="page144"></a>{144}</span> all events it is the one most
+       worthy to "be marked with a white, white stone"; and marked
+       it was, if not with a stone, with satins and laces and a
+       veil and white orange blossoms.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come and be introduced to the future Mrs. Kicky," it said.
+    "She intends to celebrate her 21st birthday by a small dance.
+    There will be friends and pretty girls, 'en veux tu, en violà.'
+    So rek-lect, olf'lah, Tuesday, at half-past seven."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:90%;">
+        <a href="images/141.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/141.png"
+             alt="" /></a>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The drawing shows how I was introduced, and how graciously I
+    was received.</p>
+
+    <p>The letter needs a word of explanation, as it
+    <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145"
+       id="page145"></a>{145}</span> speaks of the "future Mrs.
+       'Kicky,'" and I have not yet mentioned that Kicky was but
+       another name for du Maurier. He got it at an early period of
+       his life. Just as any other baby less favoured by "Dame
+       Fortune the witch" would have done, he gave himself his
+       nickname. He picked it up in Brussels when he was two years
+       old, and under the care of Flemish servants. They called him
+       "Mannekin" (little man), and that he converted into "Kicky."
+       I append one of the numerous varieties of his signature.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter"
+         style="width:40%;">
+        <a href="images/142.png"><img width="100%"
+             src="images/142.png"
+             alt="Kick" /></a>
+    </div>
+    <hr class="short" />
+
+    <p>The Rag, Tag, and Bobtail had its day, and was shelved soon
+    after we bid adieu to Bohemia; but the Kicky survived and
+    flourished, and to-day not only his old chums, but those
+    nearest and dearest to him, feel that they could not do without
+    that particular appellation, associated as it is with a
+    thousand and one happy
+    memories.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page146"
+       id="page146"></a>{146}</span> 
+
+    <p>And having arrived at that busiest of stations, the
+    Matrimonial Junction, where the converted bachelor alights and
+    changes for Better or for Worse, this chapter fitly comes to a
+    close, meant as it was only to sketch some of the pleasant
+    recollections that I, in common with so many of his friends,
+    have of du Maurier's bachelor days.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote1"
+                    name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote2"
+                    name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Pour bien apprécier la valeur artistique de cette
+        romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les
+        yeux fixes sur le profit de Bobtail.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote3"
+                    name="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>See Frontispiece.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+        <a id="footnote4"
+                    name="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b>
+                    <a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
+
+        <p>Published by kind permission of the proprietors of
+        <i>Punch</i>.</p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <hr class="full" />
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,2531 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In Bohemia with Du Maurier
+       The First Of A Series Of Reminiscences
+
+Author: Felix Moscheles
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2004 [EBook #13517]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, William Flis, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
+
+_THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF REMINISCENCES_
+
+BY
+
+FELIX MOSCHELES
+
+WITH 63 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
+
+BY
+
+G. DU MAURIER
+
+_ILLUSTRATING THE ARTIST'S LIFE IN THE FIFTIES_
+
+LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The few introductory words to this volume were written, and the last
+proofs posted, shortly before the fatal news overtook me in lovely
+Venice. My world, resplendent with sunshine, was suddenly lost in
+darkness. The most lovable of men, whose presence alone sufficed to
+make life worth living to all those near and dear to him, was gone
+from amongst us. His hand was no longer to hold those pens--the
+finely-pointed one that drew, the freely-flowing one that wrote. His
+well-earned rest was not to be enjoyed on earth.
+
+Now that all is changed, the joyous note of these pages jars upon me.
+How differently would I attune the story of our student days, were I
+to write it to-day in loving memory of my friend!
+
+But as it stands, so it must go forth. The book, cordially endorsed
+by him, is printed and all but issued; he would not let me recall
+it, I know. He himself, in his kindly, simple way, had enjoyed my
+resuscitation of our early recollections, and had here and there lent
+a helpful hand even to the correcting of the proofs.
+
+To write of him and of his qualities of heart and mind as I would
+now venture to record them, I must wait till the heavier clouds have
+cleared away and left the picture, I would draw once more to stand out
+brightly in the background of Time.
+
+FELIX MOSCHELES.
+
+October, 1896.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+"You'll see that I've used up all your Mesmerism and a trifle more in
+my new book," said du Maurier to me, some time before he published his
+"Trilby"; and that remark started us talking of the good old times in
+Antwerp, and overhauling the numerous drawings and sketches in which
+he so vividly depicted the incidents of our Bohemian days. It seemed
+to me that some of those drawings should be published, if only to
+show how my now so popular friend commenced his artistic career. In
+order that they should not go forth without explanation, I wrote the
+following pages.
+
+The Bohemia I have sought to coerce into book shape, is not the wild
+country, peopled by the delightfully unconventional savages, so often
+described, but a little cultivated corner of the land, as I found it
+in Antwerp, a mere background to the incidents I had to relate. Such
+as it is, it may perhaps serve here and there to point to the original
+soil from which were eventually to spring some of the figures so
+familiar to us to-day.
+
+To me it was a source of enjoyment to evoke these memories, and if
+I publish them, it is because I strongly feel that pleasures shared
+are pleasures doubled. Sociably inclined as I always was, I am truly
+glad to have the opportunity of giving a hearty welcome to those
+who may care to join my friend and myself in our ramblings and our
+"tumblings."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I. 17
+
+PART II. 69
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  "FOR EVER AND A DAY" _Frontispiece_
+
+  THE ATELIER GLEYRE 18
+
+  MY BLOUSE 20
+    (_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)
+
+  PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN MALINES 27
+
+  FROM DU MAURIER'S PAINTING 30
+
+  MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ETE DU BEAU SEXE 32
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ETE BEAUX 32
+
+  MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ETE ARTISTES #33
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ETE CHEVAUX 33
+
+  F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL 33
+
+  SI NOUS AVIONS ETE MILITAIRES 34
+
+  "CE SACRE VESICATOIRE" 35
+
+  ISABEL DU MAURIER 35
+
+  MOSCHELES, OR MEPHISTOPHELES?--WHICH 40
+
+  "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE" 42
+
+  DU MAURIER IMPROVISING 43
+
+  HOW RAG TRIES TO DESILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND BOBTAIL TRIES
+      TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG 44
+
+  THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE HAT 46
+
+  "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR TOBACCONISTE" 49
+
+  "SALUT A LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE" 50
+
+  A MESMERIC SEANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR 57
+
+  THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY 60
+
+  FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY 64
+
+  "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY 65
+
+  RAG 72
+
+  BOBTAIL 72
+
+  "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE? HANG MYSELF, I
+      WONDER." 76
+
+  COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS 80
+
+  CLARA MOSCHELES 83
+
+  "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRAeULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG UND IHREN
+      BRUDER." 87
+
+  CHER LIX 88
+
+  "AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----" 89
+
+  DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN 90
+
+  "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES
+      JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI" 91
+
+  DOUBLE-BEDDED ROOM IN BRUSSELS 93
+
+  THE HEIGHT OF ENJOYMENT 95
+
+  YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE OF YE
+      PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE 97
+
+  AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR 99
+
+  "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU DID THAT
+      POOR OLD SPANIARD'S" 100
+
+  MR KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS THE PROFESSOR
+      THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU' BLACKGUARD" 101
+
+  MEETING IN DUeSSELDORF 103
+
+  SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN 106
+
+  PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA 115
+
+  "ON THEIR HONEYMOON" 116
+
+  _Also Illustration on pages_ 37, 88, 98, 102, 108, 109, 110, 112,
+      114, 119, 123, 135, 144, 145.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+"TUMBLINGS"
+
+_WITH DU MAURIER AND FRIENDS._
+
+
+"I well remember" my first meeting with du Maurier in the class-rooms
+of the famous Antwerp Academy.
+
+I was painting and blagueing, as one paints and blagues in the storm
+and stress period of one's artistic development.
+
+It had been my good fortune to commence my studies in Paris; it was
+there, in the atelier Gleyre, I had cultivated, I think I may say,
+very successfully, the essentially French art of chaffing, known by
+the name of "La blague parisienne," and I now was able to give my
+less lively Flemish friends and fellow-students the full benefit of my
+experience. Many pleasant recollections bound me to Paris; so, when
+I heard one day that a "Nouveau" had arrived, straight from my old
+atelier Gleyre, I was not a little impatient to make his acquaintance.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATELIER GLEYRE.]
+
+The new-comer was du Maurier. I sought him out, and, taking it for
+granted that he was a Frenchman, I addressed him in French; we were
+soon engaged in lively conversation, asking and answering questions
+about the comrades in Paris, and sorting the threads that associated
+us both with the same place. "Did you know 'un nomme Pointer'?" he
+asked, exquisitely Frenchy-fying the name for my benefit. I mentally
+translated this into equally exquisite English, my version naturally
+being: "A man called Poynter."
+
+Later on an American came up, with whom I exchanged a few words in
+his and my native tongue. "What the D. are you--English?" broke in du
+Maurier. "And what the D. are you?" I rejoined. I forget whether D.
+stood for Dickens or for the other one; probably it was the latter. At
+any rate, whether more or less emphatic in our utterances, we then and
+there made friends on a sound international basis.
+
+It seemed to me that at this our first meeting du Maurier took me in
+at a glance--the eager, hungry glance of the caricaturist. He seemed
+struck with my appearance, as well he might be. I wore a workman's
+blouse that had gradually taken its colour from its surroundings. To
+protect myself from the indiscretions of my comrades I had painted
+various warnings on my back, as, for instance, "Bill stickers beware,"
+"It is forbidden to shoot rubbish here," and the like. My very black
+hair, ever inclined to run riot, was encircled by a craftily conceived
+band of crochet-work, such as only a fond mother's hand could devise,
+and I was doubtless colouring some meerschaum of eccentric design.
+My fellow-student, the now famous Matthew Maris, immortalised that
+blouse and that piece of crochet-work in the admirable oil-sketch here
+reproduced.
+
+[Illustration: MY BLOUSE.
+
+(_From an oil-sketch by Matthew Maris._)]
+
+It has always been a source of legitimate pride to me to think that
+I should have been the tool selected by Providence to sharpen du
+Maurier's pencil; there must have been something in my "Verfluchte
+Physiognomie," as a very handsome young German, whom I used to chaff
+unmercifully, called it, to reveal to du Maurier hidden possibilities
+and to awaken in him those dormant capacities which had betrayed
+themselves in the eager glance above named.
+
+This was, I believe, in 1857; not feeling over sure as regards that
+date, I refer to a bundle of du Maurier's letters before me, but they
+offer me no assistance; there is but one dated, and that one merely
+headed: "Dusseldorf, 19th Cent." Well, in 1857, then, let us take it,
+the Antwerp Academy was under the direction of De Keyser, that most
+urbane of men and painters. Van Lerius, well known to many American
+and English lovers of art, her Majesty included, was professor of the
+Painting Class, and amongst the students there were many who rapidly
+made themselves a name, as Tadema, M. Maris, Neuhuys, Heyermans, and
+the armless artist, whose foot-painted copies after the Masters at
+the Antwerp Gallery are well known to every tourist. The teaching was
+of a sound, practical nature, strongly imbued with the tendencies of
+the colourist school. Antwerp ever sought to uphold the traditions
+of a great Past; in the atelier Gleyre you might have studied form
+and learnt to fill it with colour, but here you would be taught
+to manipulate colour, and to limit it by form. A peculiar kind of
+artistic kicks and cuffs were administered to the student by Van
+Lerius as he went his rounds. "That is a charming bit of colour you
+have painted in that forehead," he said to me on one occasion--"so
+delicate and refined. Do it again," he added, as he took up my palette
+knife and scraped off the "delicate bit." "Ah, you see, _savez vous_,
+you can't do it again; you got it by fluke, some stray tints off your
+palette, _savez vous_," and, taking the biggest brush I had, he swept
+over that palette and produced enough of the desired tints to have
+covered a dozen foreheads.
+
+The comrade without arms was a most assiduous worker; it was amusing
+to watch his mittened feet step out of their shoes and at the shortest
+notice proceed to do duty as hands; his nimble toes would screw and
+unscrew the tops of the colour tubes or handle the brush as steadily
+as the best and deftest of fingers could have done. Very much unlike
+any of us, he was most punctilious in the care he bestowed on his
+paint box, as also on his personal appearance. Maris, Neuhuys,
+Heyermans, and one or two others equally gifted, but whose thread of
+life was soon to be cut short, were painting splendid studies, some
+of which I was fortunate enough to rescue from destruction and have
+happily preserved.
+
+Quite worthy to be placed next to these are Van-der-something's
+studies. That (or something like that) was the name of a wiry, active
+little man who in those days painted in a garret; there everything
+was disarranged chaotically, mostly on the floor, for there was no
+furniture that I can recollect beyond a stool, an easel, and a fine
+old looking-glass. He had a house, though, and a wife, in marked
+contrast with his appearance and the garret. The house was not badly
+appointed, and she was lavishly endowed with an exuberance of charms
+and graces characteristic of a Rubens model.
+
+A fellow-student of mine was their lodger, a handsome young German,
+brimful of talent, but sadly deficient in health. He had always held
+most rigid principles on questions of morality, but unfortunately
+they failed one day in their application, owing to the less settled
+views entertained by Madame Van-der-something on such subjects. She
+certainly gave him much affection on the one hand, but on the other
+she so audaciously appropriated those of his goods and chattels that
+could be turned into money, that the police had to intervene, and she
+eventually found herself before a judge and jury. There, however, she
+managed so well to cast all responsibility on her husband, who, to
+this day, I believe was quite innocent, that--"cherchez la femme"--she
+got off, and he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
+
+Now if Van Ostade or Teniers had risen to prosecute him for forging
+their signatures, and he had been found guilty and condemned to severe
+punishment, it would have served him right. He was a perfect gem of
+a forger. He picked up a stock of those dirty old pictures painted on
+worm-eaten panels that used to abound in the sale-rooms of Antwerp.
+On these he would paint what might be called replicas with variations,
+cribbing left and right from old mildewed prints that were scattered
+all about the floor. He would scrape and scumble, brighten and deaden
+with oils and varnishes; he would dodge and manipulate till his
+picture, after a given time spent in a damp cellar, would emerge as a
+genuine old master. I once asked a dealer whom I knew to be a regular
+customer of his, at what price he sold one of those productions. "I
+really can't say," he answered; "I only do wholesale business. I buy
+for exportation to England and America." If any of my friends here
+or over there possess some work of Van-der-something's, I sincerely
+congratulate them, for the little man was a genius in his way.
+
+Of my friend the German I have only to say that, poor fellow, he spent
+but a short life of pleasure and of pain. What became of his Circe
+I never sought to know. It was a clear case of "Ne cherchez pas la
+femme!"
+
+The first friend I made on my arrival in Antwerp was Jean Heyermans
+(detto il Pegghi), and a very useful one he proved himself, for he at
+once took me in hand, helped me to find home and hearth, and generally
+gave me the correct tip, so valuable to the stranger. He lost no time
+in teaching me some of those full-flavoured Flemish idioms which from
+the first enabled me to emphasise my meaning when I wished to express
+it in unmistakable language.
+
+He himself was a remarkable linguist, speaking English, French, and
+German fluently, in addition to his native language, Dutch; so he soon
+chummed with du Maurier and me in several languages, and became one of
+our set. He was always ready to follow us in our digressions from the
+conventional course, and we felt that many of our best international
+jokes would have been lost had it not been for his comprehension and
+appreciation. His father, too, was a kind friend to us, inviting us to
+his house to hear Music and talk Art, to ply knives and forks, and to
+empty glasses of various dimensions. That gentleman's corpulence had
+reached a degree which clearly showed that he must have "lost sight
+of his knees" some years back, but he was none the less strong and
+active. There were two daughters, one pathetically blind, the other
+sympathetically musical.
+
+How our friend came by the name of Peggy none of us know, but he
+figures as such in many of du Maurier's drawings.
+
+"If Peggy," he says, in a letter from Malines, "doesn't come on
+Sunday, may the vengeance of the gods overtake him! Tell him so. I'll
+meet him at the train." And then he sketches the meeting and greeting
+of the two, and the railway guard starting his train with the
+old-fashioned horn-signal on the G.E.C. then in use.
+
+My friend Jean soon started on his career as a regular exhibitor in
+Belgium and Holland, besides which he developed a remarkable taste and
+talent for teaching.
+
+[Illustration: PEGGY AND DU MAURIER AT THE RAILWAY STATION IN
+MALINES.]
+
+"What would you advise about Pen's studies?" said Robert Browning
+one afternoon as we sat in my little studio, talking about his son's
+talents and prospects. (This was a few years after my final return to
+England.) "Send him to Antwerp," I said, "to Heyermans; he is the best
+man I know of to start him."
+
+Pen went, and soon made surprising progress, painting a picture
+after little more than a twelve-month that at once found an eager
+purchaser. The poet took great pride in his son's success, and lost no
+opportunity of speaking in the most grateful and appreciative terms
+of the teacher. Millais and Tadema endorsed his praise, and Heyermans'
+reputation was established. A few years ago he migrated to London,
+where he continues his work, pluckily upholding the traditions of the
+Past, whilst readily encouraging the wholesome aspirations of a rising
+generation.
+
+Another man destined to find a permanent home in England was Alma
+Tadema. He was not much in the Painting Class in my time, but had
+previously been hard at work there. I mostly saw him in the room
+adjoining it, and he always seemed to me exclusively interested in the
+study of costume and history. The incident that led to his leaving
+the academy rather abruptly is characteristic. An uncle of his having
+given him a commission for a picture, Tadema applied to de Keyser for
+authorisation to make the necessary break in his studies. The Director
+accorded him three weeks, but, as Tadema put it when lately recalling
+the circumstance, "I couldn't paint a picture in three weeks then, and
+I cannot now."
+
+I little thought that from his studies of costume and history, the
+comrade of my Antwerp days would evolve a long and uninterrupted
+series of masterpieces, resuscitating the Past and presenting it with
+the erudition of the Student and the genius of the Artist. Nor did
+anything foreshadow that my genial Dutch friend, to whom the English
+language was a dead letter, was destined in a not too distant Future
+to become a shining light of England's Royal Academy.
+
+Du Maurier was soon installed in the Painting Class, and made a
+vigorous start. Of the things he painted, I particularly recollect
+a life-size, three-quarter group of an old woman and a boy--a
+pen-and-ink drawing of which is in my father's album--that showed
+talent enough and to spare, but his artistic aspirations were soon to
+meet with a serious check. His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and
+before long put a stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was
+not to become a painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know,
+he was to work out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest
+of means he was to delineate character, and everyday drops of ink,
+when filtered through his pen, were to emerge in quaint or graceful
+shapes, wit, satire, and sentiment taking their turns to prompt and
+guide that pen.
+
+[Illustration: _From du Maurier's painting._]
+
+
+In those days we called all that caricaturing, and caricature he
+certainly did; mainly me and himself. From the first he imagined he
+saw a marked contrast between us. His nose was supposed to be turned
+up, and mine down, whereas really neither his nor mine much deviated
+from the ordinary run of noses; my lower lip certainly does project,
+but his does not particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary
+contrast inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance,
+and started him on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all
+conceivable and in some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles and
+I," he says on one page, "had we not been artists, or had we been
+artistically beautiful; then again, if we were of the fair sex,
+or soldiers, or, by way of showing our versatility, if we were
+horses." In that page he seems to have focussed the essence of our
+characteristics, whilst appearing only to delineate our human and
+equine possibilities. Poor F., one of our German friends, fares badly,
+a donkey's head portraying him "s'il etait cheval."
+
+[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ETE DU BEAU SEXE.]
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ETE BEAUX.]
+
+In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du Maurier left
+Antwerp for Malines, to place himself under the care of an eminent
+oculist who resided within easy reach of that city. That blessed
+blister--"ce sacre vesicatoire," as he calls it, is one of the
+doctor's remedies.
+
+[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ETE ARTISTES.]
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ETE CHEVAUX.]
+
+[Illustration: F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL.]
+
+The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister of Mercy.
+
+[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ETE MILITAIRES.]
+
+In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is now, but
+one could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an hour, a circumstance
+which I frequently turned to account. Du Maurier's mother had come to
+live with him, his sister joining them for a short time, and the home
+in quiet old Malines soon became a sort of haven of rest. I spent many
+a happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to say that
+the piano, requisitioned by me for some special purposes of musical
+caricature, detracted somewhat from the restfulness of the haven.
+However that may have been, such intrusion was never resented; my
+Swedish prima donna, or my qualifications as a basso profondo, or a
+brass-bandsman, were always treated with the greatest indulgence by
+the ladies, and my high soprano flourished and positively reached
+unknown altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause.
+(For all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")
+
+[Illustration: "CE SACRE VESICATOIRE."]
+
+[Illustration: ISABEL DU MAURIER.]
+
+Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the English song,
+or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with his sympathetic
+tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he seemed to be able
+to express more than many who had had the advantage of a musical
+training. A few old letters of his remind me that we were audacious
+enough to write verses and music, he doing the former, I the latter.
+
+"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes. "Take
+strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,' and compose
+some very pretty music to the enclosed words, with which Rag's ideal
+flame has inspired Rag--_surtout_, let it be as good as possible, with
+accompaniment _a l'avenant_. An alteration in the music of each stanza
+would render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
+compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I must
+tell later on.) Then follow the words:--
+
+CHANSON.
+
+_D'apres un barde Britannique_.[1]
+
+  Les sources vont a la riviere
+    Et la riviere a l'ocean;
+  Les monts embrassent la lumiere,
+    Le vent du ciel se mele au vent;
+  Contre le flot, le flot se presse;
+    Rien ne vit seul--tout semble, ici,
+  Se fondre en la commune ivresse....
+    Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi?
+  Vois le soleil etreint la terre,
+    Qui rougit d'aise a son coucher--
+  La lune etreint les flots, qu'eclaire
+    Son rayon doux comme un baiser;
+  Les moindres fleurs ont des tendresses
+    Pour leurs pareilles d'ici-bas
+  Que valent toutes ces caresses
+    Si tu ne me caresses pas?[2]
+
+[Footnote 1: See Shelley's "Love's Philosophy."]
+
+[Footnote 2: Pour bien apprecier la valeur artistique de cette
+romance, il faut l'entendre chanter par Rag en tenant les yeux fixes
+sur le profit de Bobtail.]
+
+Two slight sketches of "L'auteur de profil" and "Le compositeur de
+face" head the page.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Soon afterwards he sends me another poetical effusion and writes:
+
+"DEAR BOBTAIL,--I send you the Serenade composed 'tant bien que mal'
+last night, not 'entre la poire et le fromage,' but between the tea
+and the pears. I am afraid you will not find it as dramatic as you
+wished; but I don't feel it otherwise, and as Mahomet can't write
+words to the mountain's music, the mountain must try and adapt its
+music to the verses of Mahomet.
+
+SERENADE APRES LA SIESTE.
+
+  "Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, ouvre done ta paupiere,
+    Chasse les reves d'or de ton leger sommeil--
+  Ils sont la, nos amis; cede a notre priere
+   Le trone prepare n'attend que ton reveil;
+  Le soleil a cesse de regner sur la terre,
+    Viens regner sur la fete et sois notre soleil.
+  Reponds a nos accords par tes accents plus doux
+  Au jardin des amours, viens o viens avec nous.
+
+  Au jardin des amours ta place est reservee,
+    Parmi des feux de joie et des lilas en fleurs.
+    Viens reveiller en nous de nouvelles ardeurs--
+  Descends avec la nuit, ainsi que la rosee--
+  Tant que l'astre d'argent sourit a la vallee,
+    Toi, bel astre d'amour, viens sourire a nos coeurs!
+  Reponds a nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
+  Au jardin des amours, Berthe, viens avec nous.
+
+  Viens avec ta couronne, et viens avec ta lyre,
+    Tes chants pour nos amis, tes doux regards pour moi!
+    Deja j'entends les jeux de la foule en emoi
+  Sur des gazons fleuris ... oh le joyeux delire!
+  Si tu ne descends pas, helas! on pourra dire:
+    'Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, on a chante sans toi!'
+  Reponds a nos accords par tes accents plus doux,
+  Berthe aux grands yeux d'azur, viens o viens avec nous!
+
+"You see I have indulged in poetic license; for instance, the first
+tenor says he hears the folks doing the light fantastic toe. One might
+suppose they danced in sabots--mere poetic license, and besides, a
+first tenor ought to have very good ears.... So now, my lad, inspire
+yourself."
+
+What the result of his appeal to my inspiration may have been, I do
+not remember, but I find this is what he writes on the subject--
+
+"CARISSIMO,--In vain have I taxed Rag's inventive powers to alter the
+last stanza; we must e'en stick to 'Ce baiser-la.' The lines I have
+underlined mean that I don't quite approve the part of the music
+that comes just there, as in the musical phrase you have set to it I
+fancy there is a want of tenderness. All the rest is stunning; the
+more I hums it the more I likes it, but I can't exactly come your
+accompaniment."
+
+[Illustration: Moscheles, or Mephistopheles? which]
+
+No wonder, for my accompaniments were usually rather indefinite
+quantities, subject to the mood of the moment. "Moscheles or
+Mephistopheles, which?" he asks, as he depicts me at the piano,
+perhaps evolving some such accompaniment from the depths of "untrained
+inner consciousness." "Eureka" he might have put under that other
+sketch, where his own hands have at last found some long-sought
+harmony or chord on the piano. Another drawing there is of a somewhat
+later period which he calls "Inspiration papillotique." Again I am at
+the piano, my eyes raised to the "She" in papillottes, who floats as a
+vision in the clouds, issuing from my ever-puffing cigar, whilst at my
+feet is stretched the meditative form of my friend, and under them is
+crushed some work of our immortal colleague Beethoven.
+
+[Illustration: "INSPIRATION PAPILLOTIQUE."]
+
+[Illustration: DU MAURIER IMPROVISING.]
+
+And who was "She" thus to inspire us? On the supposition that most
+people are, like myself, interested in the "Shes" that can inspire,
+I may permit myself to say something about the attractive young lady
+who was able to lead us by easy stages from the vague "inspiration
+papillotique" to an admiration which might be said to culminate in
+flirtation. I don't remember either of us ever trying to cut the other
+out, as the accompanying sketch seems to imply, where "Rag and Bobtail
+fight a duel for Carry, using their noses as double-barrelled pistols.
+Shows the way in which Rag tries to _desillusioner_ Carry on Bobtail,
+and in which Bobtail tries to ditto ditto on Rag Carry being on this
+side of the rivals is not represented."
+
+[Illustration: HOW RAG TRIES TO DESILLUSIONER CARRY ON BOBTAIL, AND
+BOBTAIL TRIES TO DITTO DITTO ON RAG.]
+
+The truth of the matter is that we shared fraternally in the enjoyment
+of her good graces, he having the pull of me the greater part of
+the week, and only suspending operations in my favour when I came to
+Malines on a Saturday to Monday visit. These occasions were productive
+of a great number of drawings and sketches, illustrating our little
+adventures, and all plainly showing that the incidents recorded
+occurred to us at that pleasant time of life, when bright illusions
+and buoyant spirits lead the way, and when sorrow itself has more of
+the rose colour than many a rose of a later day.
+
+Malines was, and perhaps is still, a dull, deserted city, at best up
+to the date of last century, beating the record for dry-as-dustiness
+and growing dear little blades of grass between its cobble stones. It
+boasts of a great many churches and of a very great many more priests.
+(_Vide_: The ingenious use which Rag makes of Bobtail's pliable hat.)
+In addition to these attractions, there was, however, a factor of
+paramount interest to us. Then and there, just as now and elsewhere,
+there were pretty girls about, and I need not say that, as both of
+us were studying art and devoting our best energies to the cult of
+the beautiful, we considered it our duty to take special notice of
+these pretty girls wherever we came across them. It is probably the
+conscientious performance of his duty in that direction which enabled
+du Maurier to evolve those ever-attractive and sympathetic types of
+female beauty we are all so familiar with. Nor would it have been
+becoming in me, who had everything to learn, to lag behind, or to show
+less ardour in the pursuit of my studies.
+
+[Illustration: THE INGENIOUS USE WHICH RAG MAKES OF BOBTAIL'S PLIABLE
+HAT.]
+
+Thus, whilst du Maurier's facile pen was throwing off black and white
+sketches of Miss Carry, it was reserved for me to paint her portrait
+in oils. Her real name was Octavie, not Carry; that appellation we had
+most unceremoniously and unpoetically derived from "Cigar." All else
+about her we invested, if not with ceremony with a full amount of
+poetry. And certainly there was a subtle quality in Carry, well worthy
+of appreciation, a faculty of charming and being charmed, of giving
+and taking, of free and easiness, coupled with ladylike reserve. She
+seemed to be born with the intuitive knowledge that there was only one
+life worth living, that of the Bohemian, and to be at the same time
+well protected by a pretty reluctance to admit as much. In fact, to
+give a correct idea of her I need but say her soul was steeped in the
+very essence of Trilbyism. Having got to Carry's soul, it may not be
+inappropriate to say something also about her looks; but to describe
+good looks is, as we all know, deliberately to court failure; far
+better request every man to conjure up his own type of beauty and he
+will be sure to be interested in the picture he evolves. That man will
+be nearest the truth whose young lady has a rich crop of brown curly
+hair, very blue inquisitive eyes, and a figure of peculiar elasticity.
+
+Octavie L., dite Carry, was the daughter of an organist who had held
+a good position at one of the principal churches of Malines. When he
+died he left but a small inheritance to his widow; with what she could
+realise, she purchased the goodwill of a small tobacconist's store
+and set up in business. Neither the mother nor the daughter had much
+previous knowledge of the concern they had started, and they were
+consequently not very discriminating in the selection of their brands;
+but what was lacking in connoisseurship was fully made up for by
+Mrs. L.'s obliging manners and by Octavie's blue eyes. These had
+been steadily gaining in expression since she first opened them
+about seventeen years back. Customers soon came in, and for a time
+the little business was as flourishing as anything could well be in
+Malines. The average citizen of so ecclesiastically conservative, and
+hereditarily stationary a city could hardly be expected to encourage
+a new venture of the kind. Still even there there were some young men
+about town, a sort of "jeunesse dore", not of 18-carat gold perhaps,
+but a "jeunesse" quite equal to the pleasant task of buzzing around
+the fair tobacconist. Mrs. L. did her share of chaperoning; du Maurier
+and I supplied the rest, and watched over her with chivalrous, if not
+quite disinterested devotion. We differed in every respect from the
+type of the young man of the period above mentioned; so naturally we
+were bright stars in Carry's firmament; she looked upon us as superior
+beings, and, granting her points of comparison, not without cause;
+du Maurier could draw and I could paint; he could sing and I could
+mesmerise, and couldn't we just both talk beautifully! We neither of
+us encourage hero-worship now, but then we were "bons princes," and
+graciously accepted Carry's homage as due to our superior merits.
+
+[Illustration: "BESHREW THEE, NOBLE SIR RAGGE! LET US TO THE FAIR
+TOBACCONISTE!"]
+
+There are two drawings illustrative of that chivalrous devotion of
+ours. We are galloping along on our noble steeds, richly attired, as
+true knights and good should be when they go to pay homage to beauty.
+
+"Beshrew thee, noble Sir Ragge! let us to the fair tobacconiste!"
+
+[Illustration: "SALUT A LA GENTE ET ACCORTE PUCELLE!"]
+
+"Aye! Gentle Sir Bobtaile! By my halidome, she's passing fair."
+
+The second drawing shows our "Salut a la Gente et accorte pucelle!"
+and the winning smile with which Carry would receive us.
+
+Mesmerism, or, as the fashion of to-day calls it, Hypnotism, formed
+so frequent a topic of conversation and speculation between du Maurier
+and myself, that it takes a very prominent place in my recollections.
+
+In Paris I had had opportunities of attending some most interesting
+seances, in consequence of which I soon proceeded to investigate the
+mesmeric phenomena on my own account. Now I have not touched the fluid
+for some thirty years; I swore off because it was taking too much
+out of me; but I look back with pleasure on my earlier experiments,
+successes I may say, for I was fortunate enough to come across several
+exceptional subjects. Du Maurier was particularly interested in one of
+these, Virginie Marsaudon, and had a way of putting puzzling questions
+concerning her faculties and my mesmeric influence. Virginie was
+a "femme de menage" of the true Parisian type, a devoted elderly
+creature, a sort of cross between a charwoman and a housekeeper. I was
+not yet eighteen when I first went to Paris, to study under my cousin,
+the eminent painter, Henri Lehmann. At his studio I found Virginie
+installed as the presiding genius of the establishment, using in
+turn broom or tub, needle, grill or frying-pan as the occasion might
+require; the wide range of her powers I further extended by making a
+truly remarkable mesmeric subject of her. My debut in Paris was that
+of the somewhat bewildered foreigner, speaking but very indifferent
+French, and she had from the first done what she could to make me feel
+at home in the strange city, treating me with truly motherly care
+and devotion. How completely she took possession of me, is shown by a
+passage in a letter she wrote when I was ill in Leipsic, where I had
+gone on a visit to my parents. After expressing her anxiety and her
+regret at not being there to nurse me, she emphatically says:--"Je
+rends Madame, votre mere, responsable de votre sante" (I make Madame,
+your mother, responsible for your health). It needed but little to
+lead her on from a state of docile and genial dependence to one of
+unconscious mesmeric subjection, and so, a few passes shaping her
+course, I willed her across the boundary line that separates us from
+the unknown, a line which, thanks to science, is daily being extended.
+Madame veuve Marsaudon was herself an incorrigible disbeliever in the
+phenomena of mesmerism, but as a subject her faculties were such as to
+surprise and convert many a scoffer.
+
+At the seances, to which I invited my friends and a few scientific
+outsiders, I always courted the fullest investigation, taking it as
+the first duty of the mesmerist to show cause why he should not be
+put down as a charlatan. So we had tests and counter-tests, evidence
+and counter-evidence; there were doctors to feel the pulse and to
+scrutinise the rigidity of the muscles, experts to propound scientific
+ifs and buts, and wiseacres generally to put spokes in the wheel of
+progress, as is their playful way, wherever they find that wheel
+in motion. It was doubly satisfactory, then, that the good faith of
+subject and mesmerist could be conclusively proved.
+
+One of these seances led to a rather amusing incident. One night I
+was awakened from first slumbers by a sharp ring at my bell, and when,
+after some parleying, I opened the door, I found myself confronted
+by two individuals. One I recognised as an "inquirer" who had been
+brought to my rooms some time previously; the other was a lad I
+had not seen before. The inquirer, I ascertained, having carefully
+watched my _modus operandi_ on the occasion of his visit, had next
+tried experiments of his own. In this instance he had succeeded in
+mesmerising a lad, but had found it impossible to recall him to his
+normal condition. So, securing him by a leather strap fastened round
+his waist, he led him through the streets of Paris to my rooms.
+There we both tried our powers upon him, the result being very
+unsatisfactory. The youth, feeling himself freed from one operator and
+not subjected by the other, refused allegiance to either, and, being
+of a pugnacious temperament, he squared up and commenced striking
+out at both of us. It was not without considerable difficulty that I
+re-mesmerised him completely, and then, having previously prepared his
+mind to account naturally for his presence in my rooms, I succeeded in
+awakening him, and all ended happily. The inquirer was duly grateful,
+the youth went home strapless and none the worse for the adventure,
+and I proceeded to do some very sound sleeping on my own account.
+
+I would say more of my seances and all the recollections they evoke,
+were I not impatient to get back to du Maurier and to Malines. Once on
+the experiences of those days, I have much to relate--pros and cons,
+if you please, for that subtle magnetic fluid, which, without physical
+contact, one human being can transmit to another, is a ticklish one
+to handle. I cannot pack my pen, though, and take train of thought to
+the Belgian city without mentioning my friend Allonge, the well-known
+French artist, then a fellow-student of mine at the Ecole des Beaux
+Arts. A chance contact of our knees as we sat closely packed with some
+sixty other students put me on the track of a new subject, perhaps the
+most interesting one it was ever my good fortune to come across. But
+of him another time.
+
+Using the privilege of a mesmerist, I elect to will the reader--that
+is, if natural slumber has not ere this put him beyond my
+control--across the frontier, into the back parlour of Mrs. L.'s
+tobacco store. There I am operating on a boy--such a stupid little
+Flemish boy that no amount of fluid could ever make him clever. How I
+came to treat him to passes I don't remember; probably I used him as
+an object-lesson to amuse Carry. All I recollect is that I gave him
+a key to hold, and made him believe that it was red-hot and burnt
+his fingers, or that it was a piece of pudding to be eaten presently,
+thereby making him howl and grin alternately.
+
+In the middle of our seance Carry is called away by a customer, one
+of the swells of Malines much addicted to a poetical expression of his
+admiration for the fair sex in general and for Carry in particular.
+Greatly to our edification, she was pleased to improve the occasion by
+leading him on, within our hearing, to make what is commonly called a
+fool of himself. The pleasant incident is recorded in the accompanying
+sketch.
+
+But mesmerism meant more than incidental amusement or even scientific
+experiment to us in those Antwerp and Malines days. When one stands
+on the threshold of a world of mysteries one cannot but long to bridge
+over the chasm that separates one from the gods, the fairies, or
+the fiends. To be sure, we should have been glad if we could have
+got "light, more light" thrown on our steps, but, failing that, we
+tried to find our way as best we could in the mist. We loved that
+never-attainable Will-o'-the-Wisp, "Truth," for its own dear Bohemian
+sake; so, guided by Fancy and Fantasy, we made frequent inroads into
+the boundless land where unknown forces pick up our poor dear little
+conception of the Impossible, and use it as the starting-point of
+never-to-be-exhausted possibilities.
+
+[Illustration: A MESMERIC SEANCE IN MRS. L.'S BACK PARLOUR.]
+
+Such a land was particularly well suited to the state of our
+outward-bound minds and our excelsior appetites. It was on one or
+the other of these excursions, I feel confident, that du Maurier
+was inoculated with the germs that were eventually to develop into
+Trilbyism and Svengalism. No wonder, then, if in more than one of
+his letters and sketches the future delineator of those characters
+embodies bold dreams and fancies, or if on one occasion he depicts
+himself, with fixed gaze and hair erect, sitting bolt upright on my
+hospitable sofa, thrilled and overawed by the midnight presence of the
+uncanny, which I had evoked for his benefit.
+
+"Yes, governor, it's all very well to ask a nervous fellow to Antwerp
+and amuse him and make him ever so jolly and comfortable--But why,
+when the bleak November wind sobs against the lattice and disturbs the
+dead ashes in the grate, when everything is damned queer and dark,
+and that sort of thing, you know--why should you make nervous fellows'
+flesh creep by talk about mesmerism, and dead fellows coming to see
+live fellows before dying, and the Lord knows what else? Why, Gad!
+it's horrid!"
+
+[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT PRESENCE OF THE UNCANNY.]
+
+My rooms in Antwerp were the scene of many a festive gathering. We
+always spoke of them in the plural; it sounded better, but in reality
+there was only one room with two small alcoves. Studies and sketches
+covered the walls or littered the floor, and the genial figure of a
+skeleton, in very perfect condition, stood in the corner by the piano.
+At first it came with a view to instructing me in the Science of
+Anatomy, but soon, putting aside any didactic pretensions, my bony
+professor became quite a companion and friend; it was thus natural
+that on those occasions when guests had been convened to my rooms,
+he would take a leading part, generally appearing gracefully draped
+and appropriately illuminated, and thus forming a fitting background
+to the gay proceedings of the evening. We had music, recitation,
+and acting, mostly of an improvised, homemade character. The sounds
+thereof were not confined, however, to the narrow limits of home, but
+spread far beyond it, a fact which the neighbours, I am sure, would
+have been at any time ready most emphatically to attest.
+
+In justice to myself I may say that I was primarily answerable for the
+magnitude of the sound waves, but I am bound to add that my example
+was followed and even improved upon by the more lung-gifted of
+my companions. Amongst the milder forms of entertainment was my
+impersonation of Rachel. That grand actress I had often seen in Paris,
+and had, more than once, shivered in my shoes as she annihilated the
+Tyrant, pouring forth the vials of her wrath and indignation in the
+classical language of Racine and Corneille. With those accents still
+ringing in my ears I came to Antwerp, and there, when surrounded by
+sympathetic friends, the spirit would sometimes move me, and I would
+feel--excuse the conceit of youth--as if I too could have been a
+great female Tragedian, had Fate not otherwise disposed of me. In
+such moments I would seize the blade of the paper-knife, and use the
+blood of the beet-root, drape myself in the classical folds of the
+bed-sheet, and go for the Tyrant, hissing fearful hexameters of scorn
+and vituperation into his ears, and usually winding up with a pose so
+magnificently triumphant that it would bring down any house which was
+not of the most solid construction.
+
+Another time the cushion yonder would be my child--the orthodox
+long-lost one--"It is!--It is not!--It is!--Let me clasp it to my
+other cushion!" "Toi mon fils cheri. Ange de mon enfer, douleur de mes
+loisirs!"
+
+[Illustration: FELIX LOOKS VERY SEEDY AFTER HIS BIRTHDAY.]
+
+The celebration of one of my birthdays was an event rescued from
+oblivion by du Maurier's pencil. He illustrates our lively doings
+on that day and my appearance the next morning. "Felix's mamma," he
+says, "had worked a very pretty cap for Felix, and Felix had it on the
+morning after his birthday, and Felix found that though the cap was
+very pretty, it made him look very seedy."
+
+[Illustration: "RACHEL" AND FRIENDS CELEBRATE BOBTAIL'S BIRTHDAY.]
+
+In the other drawing he gives striking likenesses of the friends
+assembled to celebrate the festive occasion. They had come together
+in the evening, much in the same spirit that had led them under my
+windows in the morning, with a brass band and an enormous bouquet of
+cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers. There, on the left, is Van Lerius
+with his hands in his pockets, next to him du Maurier; then Heyermans,
+Bource, and all the other chums, and, though last not least, the proud
+bearer of the steaming punch-bowl. What a set of jolly good fellows!
+It is quite a pleasure to pore over the sketch and contemplate du
+Maurier's phiz, expressing his unbounded capacity of enjoyment. I can
+see him taking points that fell flat with the other fellows. Quite
+a pleasure, too, to think of Huysmans' big nose and Van Lerius' bald
+head, of the tall and the short, of spindle shanks and chubby face.
+
+Where are they all now? Some thirty-five years have elapsed, and
+the whirligig of time has been revolving with unfailing regularity,
+dropping us here and there, as caprice dictated, some to stand, some
+to fall. What has become of the threads of friendship, picked up at
+the studio or the cafe, perhaps whilst puzzling over the chess-board,
+or when harmonising in four-part song? Golden threads; some destined
+to be spun out and to become solidly intertwined; others to be
+hopelessly entangled or cruelly snapped asunder by the inexorable
+Fates. Where shall I find them now, those friends and boon companions
+of my Bohemian days? Here, there, and everywhere--perhaps nowhere!
+Some I see trotting briskly along the high-road of life, others
+dragging wearily through its tangled bypaths. Yet again others resting
+under a big, cold stone that bears an inscription and a couple of
+dates, fixed just above their heads.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+I well remember a certain "barriere" that protected the level crossing
+just outside the Malines Station. It was but an ordinary piece of
+hinged timber, but we, that is, du Maurier and I, can never forget it;
+for, as we stood by its side we vowed that come what might, we would
+never travel along that line and past the old gate without recalling
+that summer evening and re-thinking the thoughts of our early days.
+
+It was also there, one evening, that we adopted our
+never-to-be-forgotten aliases--Rag and Bobtail. We had chanced upon a
+chum of ours named Sprenk lounging across that old barriere, and some
+fortuitous circumstance having revealed the fact that his initials
+were T.A.G., we forthwith dubbed him Tag. Out of that very naturally
+grew the further development: Rag, Tag, and Bobtail.
+
+T.A.G. was an Englishman, strong and hearty and considerably taller
+than either of us. That alone would have sufficed to secure him
+the friendship of du Maurier, who ever worshipped at the shrine
+of physical greatness. He loved to look up to the man of
+six-foot-something, or to sit in the shadow of the woman of commanding
+presence, his appreciation of size culminating in the love of "Chang,"
+that dog of dogs, whom we have all learnt to admire, as we followed
+his career through the volumes of the immortal Weekly, presided over
+by Toby and his master.
+
+I somehow associate Tag with whisky and water; not that he took it
+much or often, but he gave one the impression that whatever others
+might do when amongst the benighted foreigner, he, for one, would not
+let a good old English custom drop into disuse. Looking at Tag one
+intuitively felt that his father before him had taken his moderate
+glass of W. and W., and that, if he married and had sons, they would
+do likewise. I do not think that he was particularly fond of art
+or artists, unless inasmuch as they were brother Bohemians. He was
+engaged, or, at least, he was generally just about to be engaged, in
+some business, and whilst waiting for the opportune moment to commence
+operations, he would settle down to an expectant present. The golden
+opportunity he was looking for was plainly visible on his horizon, but
+it had a way of remaining stationary, and as it was contrary to Tag's
+nature to move unless under great pressure, the two never met.
+
+In the meanwhile Tag was one of our trio of chums; he was a good deal
+with us when we were out and about, bent on storming the world, or
+climbing Parnassus; we did the climbing, he the looking on, the parts
+thus being distributed to our mutual satisfaction. He was always
+pleasantly acquiescent, and had the rare gift of making himself
+useless agreeably; a common bond of interest we had in the Colorado
+claro and oscuro, whether the fair or dark, applied to the friendly
+weed or the still more friendly fair sex.
+
+He describes himself pretty correctly in a letter he wrote to us from
+Paris, when he says:--
+
+    "Since my arrival here my notes of what I have to do represent
+    what I have not done, and if it be true that the infernal
+    regions are paved with good intentions, I shall be received
+    on my arrival by a deputation of souls to thank me for my
+    contribution to the pavement."
+
+[Illustration: RAG.]
+
+[Illustration: BOBTAIL.]
+
+There are sketches in which Tag's eloquence is confined to one
+exclamation, "Matilda!" But whether that name was coupled with present
+felicity or future hopes I do not recollect. But du Maurier's lines
+describe him and our chumship much better than any words of mine could
+do. He says:--
+
+"To BOBTAIL.
+
+  Oh, fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint
+  All lazy beggars like me--"
+
+  "In the sunshine of April, the April of life,
+    You and I and our Tag make three;
+  And few will deny that for such close chums
+    A queer set of fellows are we.
+
+  For I walk slowly, and you walk fast,
+    And Tag lies down (not to fall);
+  _You_ think of the Present, _I_ think of the Past,
+    And Tag thinks of nothing at all.
+
+  Yet who shall be lucky, and who shall be rich?
+    Whether both, neither, one, or all three;
+  Is a mystery which, Dame Fortune, the witch,
+    Tells neither Tag, Bobtail, or me!
+
+(RAG)."
+
+The portraits of Rag and Bobtail head the page. A space was left for
+Tag's, but never filled.
+
+_Apropos_ of plans and prospects on Tag's distant horizon, I find a
+passage in one of his letters, dated November, 1857, which is well
+worth recording. I quote it to give myself and my fellow Europeans an
+opportunity of rejoicing that Tag's scheme belonged to those that were
+not to be realised. It runs thus:--
+
+    "As du Maurier's eye, though better, will, most probably,
+    not allow him to resume his profession as a painter, we have
+    determined to try our fortune together in Australia, and
+    mean to start from here early in February. He hopes to obtain
+    employment by drawing sketches, caricatures, &c., for the
+    Melbourne _Punch_, and other illustrated papers. You know how
+    eminently suited he is for that kind of work, and we hear that
+    an artist of talent of that description is much wanted out
+    there, and would be sure to do exceedingly well. I, of course,
+    do not intend to start in that line, but hope to be able to
+    support myself for the first few years, after which I shall
+    establish myself in business on my own account, and I trust,
+    with luck, I may return home in the course of from ten to
+    fifteen years, if not with immense riches, at all events with
+    enough to enable me to pass the remainder of my 'old age' in
+    peace and comfort."
+
+[Illustration: "WHAT THE DEUCE AM I TO DO WITH THIS CONFOUNDED ROPE?
+HANG MYSELF, I WONDER."]
+
+Did Tag ever go, I wonder? Did he come back, and has he perhaps
+been enjoying his "old age" somewhere over here for the last thirty
+years?--I wish you would say what _has_ become of you, my dear Tag.
+I'm sure we should be chums again, if you're anything like the dear
+old stick-in-the-mud of former days! Don't you recollect that sketch
+of Rag's? I had nearly forgotten to mention it, the one with the three
+ropes of life. I am climbing ahead with fiendish energy. Rag follows,
+steadily ascending, weighted as he is with a treasure, a box marked
+"Mrs. Rag, with care," and your noble form is squatting on the floor,
+a glass of the best blend at your feet, and a cigar you are enjoying
+from which rises the legend that makes you say, "What the deuce am I
+to do with this confounded rope? Hang myself, I wonder?" Nonsense, to
+be sure; but do come and tell me what you _have_ done with the rope,
+or say where I can find you still squatting.
+
+That music of a certain spontaneous kind, the music within us which we
+were ever longing to bring to the surface, was a bond of union between
+du Maurier and myself, I have already mentioned; but that bond was to
+be greatly strengthened by the music that great musicians on more than
+one occasion lavished on us. First came Louis Brassin, the pianist. He
+had studied under Moscheles at the Conservatorio of Leipsic, the city
+of Bach and Mendelssohn fame; and there, from the days of his boyhood,
+he had belonged to the little circle of intimates who frequently
+gathered around the master at his house.
+
+When, a few years later, he came to Belgium on a concert tour, he and
+I found no difficulty in taking up the old friendship contracted in my
+father's house, just where we had left it. The boy had become the man,
+the student had developed into the artist and thorough musician. He
+was the boonest of boon companions, and his jokes were so broad that
+they often reminded one, in their crudeness and their rudeness, of
+certain passages in Mozart's early letters. To say that he spoke
+French with a German accent a la Svengali would be putting it very
+mildly; Teutonic gutturals would most unceremoniously invade the
+sister language; d's and t's, b's and p's would ever change places, as
+they are made to do in some parts of the Fatherland. With all that,
+he rejoiced in a delightful fluency of speech, conveying quaint and
+original thought. There was something decidedly interesting about
+Brassin's looks, but his figure gave one the impression of having been
+very carelessly put together; when he walked his head went back on his
+shoulders, and his hat went back on his head; his long arms dangled,
+pendulum-like, by his sides, while his lanky legs, dragging along
+anyhow, were ever lagging behind one another. But when he opened the
+piano and put hands and feet to keys and pedal, he was not the same
+individual. He would turn on nerve and muscle-power, and would hurl
+avalanches of music and torrents of notes at his audience till he, in
+his turn, was overwhelmed with thunders of applause. And those were
+the days, we must remember, when but few men could play at a greater
+rate than twenty to twenty-five miles an hour; when grand pianos were
+not yet ironclad and armour-plated, or had learnt proudly to display
+the maker's name on their broadside when they went forth to do battle
+on the concert field.
+
+[Illustration: COFFEE AND BRASSIN IN BOBTAIL'S ROOMS.]
+
+Brassin used to draw inane caricatures of himself, which he would
+present to us with a triumphant laugh of immoderate calibre. I have
+preserved some of these, but decidedly prefer du Maurier's rendering
+of our common friend. In the accompanying drawing he shows him at the
+piano, entertaining us on "A rainy day."
+
+"Ah! Felix, amico mio," he says, "may thy room be always as jolly,
+thy coffee be ever so sweet, as on that happy morning! May Brassin's
+fingers be ever as brilliant and inspired! May Tag be ever as lazy,
+and with equal satisfaction to himself, and may I never be blinder!
+Amen."
+
+That sketch admirably pourtrays the lankiness and flabbiness of
+Brassin's figure, contrasting as it did with the strength of the wrist
+and the grip of the fingers. He was certainly a fine subject for du
+Maurier, whom I always looked upon as a sort of vivisector of music
+and musicians, of their methods and their moods. A brilliant career
+awaited Louis Brassin, but it was to be suddenly and unexpectedly cut
+off. He died some ten years ago at the age of forty-four.
+
+In 1858 my father came on a visit to Antwerp with my mother and my
+youngest sister, Clara. Wherever my father took up his abode, even
+temporarily, a grand piano would in the natural course of events
+gravitate towards him, and a select circle of art lovers would soon be
+grouped around it. Amongst the friends in the Antwerp circle were--Van
+Lerius, Tadema, Baron Leys, Heyermans, and Bource. My sister at that
+time was a bright and happy creature, not long out of her teens,
+full of hopes--alas! never to be realised, and of talents never to be
+matured. The large dark eyes--they seemed the gift of her godmother,
+the famous Malibran--reflected the artist's soul, and a grand soprano
+voice spoke its powerful language. Du Maurier and she were soon on a
+brother and sisterly footing, and they ever remained so.
+
+[Illustration: CLARA MOSCHELES.]
+
+Of the pleasant evenings we of the circle spent together I recall one
+in particular. My sister had been singing one song after another;
+my father was engaged in an animated conversation with Stefani,
+the pianist, on the relative merits of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Du
+Maurier and I had been sitting at the farther end of the room, talking
+of his eyes. At that time one doctor held out hopes; another, a great
+authority, had considered it his painful duty not to conceal the
+truth from his patient, and had, with much unction and the necessary
+complement of professional phraseology, prepared him for the worst.
+The sight of one eye had gone, that of the other would follow. Those
+were anxious days, both for him and for his friends; but, whatever
+he felt, he could talk about his trouble with perfect equanimity,
+and I often wondered how quietly he took it, and how cheerfully he
+would tell me that he was "fearfully depressed." That evening I had
+been putting the chances of a speedy recovery before him, and making
+predictions based, I am bound to admit, on nothing more substantial
+than my ardent hopes. But du Maurier was too much of a philosopher to
+be satisfied with such encouragement as I could give, and said: "No, I
+had better face the enemy and be prepared for the worst. If it comes,
+you see, my dear fellow, there is Nature's law of compensation, and
+I firmly believe that one cannot lose one faculty without being
+compensated by some great gain elsewhere. I suppose one gets to see
+more inside as things grow darker outside. If one can't paint, one
+must do something else--write perhaps; that is, as long as one can,
+and then, if the steam accumulates, and one wants a safety valve to
+let it off, dictate." Happily, to this day he writes, and need not
+have recourse to dictation.
+
+When we joined our friends we found Van Lerius and Heyermans had been
+pressed into the service, and were making sketches for my sister's
+album. Du Maurier took up a pencil, and, with a few characteristic
+touches, drew that sister's eyes. "Quand je les vois," he wrote
+underneath, "j'oublie les miens. (Reflexion d'un futur aveugle.) When
+I see them I forget my own. (Reflections of a man going blind.)"
+
+Soon the main business of the evening was resumed. Was it Beethoven's
+sonata for piano and violin, or a mighty improvisation on classical
+themes that came first? I do not recollect; but I remember that du
+Maurier's rendering of Balfe's "When other lips and other hearts,"
+with my scratch accompaniment, was warmly greeted by all lips and
+hearts present.
+
+When these pleasant evenings had come to an end, the friendly
+intercourse was not allowed to drop, and so a number of sketches by
+her new friends found their way into Miss Clara's album.
+
+In the following winter, when I left on a short visit to Leipsic, he
+sent her a few lines through me. I quote from his letter because
+the wording is peculiar, and illustrates his capacity for expressing
+himself in a language that he had to evolve from his inner
+consciousness:--
+
+"Herr Rag schickt zu Fraeulein Moscheles _sein_ empfehlung und _ihren_
+bruder; es wird hoeflicht gebeten das sie wird die sach reciprokiren,
+und in fuenftzen daegen _ihr_ empfehlung und _seinen_ freund zuruck
+schicken."
+
+For the benefit of those whose inner consciousness is not in touch
+with the above, I give the English version:--
+
+"Mr. Rag sends _his_ greeting and _her_ brother to Miss Moscheles, and
+kindly requests her to reciprocate the proceeding in a fortnight by
+returning _her_ greeting and _his_ friend."
+
+[Illustration: "HERR RAG SCHICKT ZU FRAeULEIN MOSCHELES SEIN EMPFEHLUNG
+UND IHREN BRUDER."]
+
+[Illustration: LIX.]
+
+When I think how easily and spontaneously such sketches dropped from
+his pen, I am reminded of a passage in one of Mendelssohn's letters to
+my mother; he sends her the _Mailied_ and says: "This morning a song
+came to me. I really must write it down for you." So, too, from the
+first the pen-and-ink compositions came to du Maurier. His talent
+manifested itself not only in a desire to illustrate this or that
+incident or adventure, but also in his inexhaustible capacity for
+making something out of nothing, and as the nothing was never lacking,
+he might well say: "Dear Bobtail, I will never write without sending
+my compliments to thine album." His rendering of "Cher Lix," for
+instance, takes the shape of a graceful monogram, or diplogram, or
+whatever I ought to call a combination of our two profiles and my
+name.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He starts a short missive with a sketch of himself seated in his
+trunk, pipe in mouth, and says: "Dear Bobtail, I write to you out of
+sheer idleness, so as to have an excuse not to pack up for the next
+half-hour." Or he draws himself looking over my shoulder whilst I am
+writing to my sister and puts the supposed context of my letter:--
+
+[Illustration: AN INDISCREET FELLOW LOOKING OVER MY ----]
+
+"Bobtail writes (in German of course):
+
+"I won't write any more, for there's an indiscreet fellow looking over
+my ----"
+
+"_Rag_. It's not true, I swear. (For Miss Clara.)"
+
+[Illustration: DU MAURIER AT WORK AGAIN.]
+
+Another time he wants me to send him some brushes and various other
+painting materials he enumerates: "Oh, and a little thing like this
+for oil to do the thing cheesy." He depicts himself quite elated; his
+eyes seemed so much better that he had once more resumed work in the
+studio of his friend Goyers. "Gruss from maternal and self," he ends;
+"ganz hertzlich; come soon, or write soon, or do something soon, hang
+it.--Thy RAG, jusqu' a la mort."
+
+[Illustration: "CLAUDIUS FELIX ET PUBLIUS BUSSO, CUM CENTURIONE
+GUIDORUM, AUDIENTES JUVENES CONSERVATORIONI."]
+
+Monsieur Staps, Sous-Chef of the "Guides," the best military band in
+Brussels, was a friend of ours. He had invited us to one of the famous
+Concerts du Conservatoire, a treat in anticipation of which du Maurier
+at once takes to the pen, and shows us in classical garments and
+dignified attitudes listening to the "young men of the Conservatorio."
+"Sketch represents," he says "Claudius Felix et Publius Busso, cum
+centurione Guidorum, audientes juvenes Conservatorioni, A.D. CCLVIII."
+The "Busso" derived from his full name--George Louis Palmella Busson
+du Maurier.
+
+In striking contrast with the last drawing is the next. Here we are
+decidedly anything but conventional in our attire, as he depicts us
+in "Double-bedded room, Brussels. Time 11 a.m. (train starts 11.20).
+Bobtail's face being rather smutty, he washes it, and Rag's boots
+being rather tight, he puts them on at leisure, during which process
+he has time to smoke three pipes. _Bobtail_. Bub-bub-bub-bub ... whew
+... pouf!... _Rag_. How many?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A favourite theme of his was his supposed inability to shine on
+occasions when I had introduced him to friends of mine, and was
+particularly anxious to show him off to advantage, and then, again,
+the unrelenting fate that would swiftly overtake him if he ventured
+to put himself forward. I need not say that the inability and the
+discomfiture existed only in his imagination, for in all circles he
+was ever appreciated and admired. But he would have it otherwise, and
+pourtrays us side by side with the legend--
+
+[Illustration: "The height of enjoyment. Rag thinking of his eyes, in
+a pair of tight boots, with Bobtail whispering: 'Say something clever,
+you stupid muff!'"]
+
+Another drawing shows what happened when for once in a way he presumed
+to accept the homages of the fair.
+
+"One fine morninge, earlie, at ye Cafe de la Plage, Blankenberghe, ye
+celebrated Rag, deeming himself alone, treateth himself to a private
+performance of ye Padre furioso e figlia infelice, in imitatione of
+his illustrious friende, Felix Bobtailo. Presentlie a voice exclaimeth
+behind him, 'Monsieur, permettez moi de vous feliciter,' and a ladie
+politelie maketh him complimente on his talente. Rag replieth that
+she must not be surprised thereat, as hys life has been spent among
+ye great musicians, and that therefore he can scarcelie helpe being a
+consummate musician himselfe. Shortly after as he lighteth hys cigarre
+at ye barre, he enquireth bumptiously, 'Who might that good ladie be?'
+'She is the prima-donna of the Munich Opera, Monsieur.' Whereupon ye
+soul of ye humiliated Rag sinketh into hys bootes, and he retireth for
+ever under a perpetual extinguisher.
+
+"Ye hero of ye above unfortunate adventure presenteth hys compliments
+to Miss Clara Moscheles, and beggeth she will deigne to accepte
+ye sketche in acknowledgment of ye last box of 'acidulated
+lemon-flavoured droppes' entrusted to her brother's care (need he
+remark that they have not yet reached their destination).
+
+"Miss Clara is invited to observe how cunninglie ye profile of Rag is
+made to imitate that of her talented brother."
+
+[Illustration: YE CELEBRATED RAG TREATETH HIMSELF TO A PRIVATE
+PERFORMANCE OF YE PADRE FURIOSO E FIGLIA INFELICE.]
+
+Du Maurier's stay in Blankenberghe was but short. He soon went to
+Duesseldorf to put himself under the treatment of a famous oculist,
+Hofrath de Leeuwe, who resided not far from there at Graefrath. He
+wrote, in high spirits: "Spent yesterday in Graefrath; jolly place,
+lots of beauties, plenty of singing and sketching and that sort of
+thing, you know. Long walks in beautiful valleys, most delightful. The
+fact is, I'm so beastly merry since I've been here that I don't think
+I'm quite sane, and altogether only want your periodical visits and
+permission to have my fling on Saturday nights to be in heaven. Doctor
+says he'll do me good; have to go to Graefrath once a week. Ca me bote
+joliment. Good-bye, my old. Thine ever
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He had met some old acquaintances and fraternised with some English
+and American artists, had got into the swim of Graefrath society, such
+as it was, and was soon placed on a pedestal, whilst sundry beauties
+sat at his feet and, to the best of my belief, sighed. "They all want
+me to make etchings of the little can-cans and lick-spittlings going
+on here. Splendid study; shall think about it. Carry novel, of course,
+adjourned _sine die_; haven't got time just now--you know what a
+fellow I am. Just got her letter; very naive and amusing--but don't
+tell her so, or else she will pose for that and spoil it. Here is a
+little drawing for you. Do all honour to it, since it has met with a
+little ovation here."
+
+[Illustration: AT THE HOFRATH'S DOOR.
+
+"SHE. REALLY I DON'T SEE THE SLIGHTEST MOTE IN YOUR EYES."
+
+"HE. NO, BUT I CAN SEE THE BEAMS IN YOURS."]
+
+He calls it "a new adaptation from the New Testament." He and a
+charming "she" sit waiting their turn at the Hofrath's door. _He_
+is looking into her eyes and _she_ into his. "Really I don't see the
+slightest mote in your eyes," says she. "No, but I can see the beams
+in yours," he replies.
+
+[Illustration: "I SAY, GOVERNOR, MIND YOU DON'T GASH HIS THROAT AS YOU
+DID THAT POOR OLD SPANIARD'S!"]
+
+Did du Maurier ever attempt to shave anybody, I wonder? According
+to one of the sketches he sent me from Duesseldorf he did, and was so
+engaged on a blind man Kennedy, when a Captain Marius comes on the
+scene and says, in discreet whisper and with much concern, "I say,
+governor, mind you don't gash his throat as you did that poor old
+Spaniard's! (_Out loud_) How d'ye do, Kennedy?"
+
+The same Mr. Kennedy figures once more, when, unaware of the presence
+of the captain, he discreetly informs the professor that Captain
+Marius Blueblast "is na' but a sinfu' blackguard."
+
+[Illustration: MR. KENNEDY, WHO IS QUITE BLIND, DISCREETLY INFORMS
+THE PROFESSOR THAT CAPTAIN MARIUS BLUEBLAST "IS NA BUT A SINFU'
+BLACKGUARD."]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A portrait he drew of the doctor was a great success. "I have done the
+old cock's portrait stunningly," he says; "nine crosses of the Legion
+of Honour, &c. Not a sou into my pocket; all for poor-box. Fancy a
+fellow like me making presents to the poor-box (_vide_ sketch)! But as
+the portrait will be very much spilt about (_repandu_), I may fish a
+stray order or two. I have followed your advice for a whole week and
+done a magnificent Framboisy. Shall not attempt to go on until you
+are here to give me another stirring-up. Am going to Antwerp next week
+(always am). Shall you be moving too? Journey together--great fun.
+Take care of my purse and passport, and see my trunks are locked."
+
+[Illustration: MEETING IN DUeSSELDORF. WE SAT INTO THE SMALL HOURS OF
+THE MORNING, TALKING OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE FROM MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN:--
+
+  "Dark was the sun! Heavy the clouds on the cliffs of Oithona--when
+  the fair-headed son of the Maurialva crossed his claymore with
+  the stern dark-browed Bobthailva and swore friendship on the names
+  of Carry and Damask."]
+
+I was moving, and as du Maurier kept on being about to go to Antwerp,
+I went to pay him a flying visit at Duesseldorf on my way to Paris. We
+sat into the small hours of the morning (as he depicts us), talking
+of the past, present, and future, a long-necked Rhine-wine bottle and
+two green glasses beside us, our hopes and aspirations rising with
+the cloud that curled from my ever-glowing cigar. We talked till
+his fertile imagination took us across the sea, and "Ragmar of the
+Maurialva and Bobthailva, the son of Moscheles, swore eternal amity on
+their native heath."
+
+Damask was another beauty whom we appreciated, perhaps all the more
+because we knew she was dying of consumption.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Paris I was probably absorbed in some work I had in hand and must
+have neglected du Maurier, for he writes urging me to answer by return
+of post and give an account of myself. He had been visited, he says,
+by an alarming nightmare, which he forthwith sketches for my benefit.
+Carry, the Circe, had captured the lion. The noble beast--that was
+me--had succumbed to the wiles of the enchantress, and submitted
+tamely to being combed and brushed and to having his claws clipped
+by her hand. Like birds of a feather, so do lions of a name,
+flock together. And so another noble beast--that was he--is seen
+approaching, presumably to claim his share of the combing and clipping
+and of whatever other favours may be forthcoming.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Another time when, I suppose, I was again letting him wait for an
+answer, he writes from Duesseldorf: "DEAR BOBTAIL,--Est-ce que tu
+te donnes le genre de m'oublier par hazard? I have been expecting a
+letter from you every day, running thus: 'DEAR RAG,--Come to Paris
+_immediately_, to illustrate thirty-six periodical papers which I have
+got for you. In haste, Bobtail.' My old pal, Tom Armstrong, is here,
+working hard; eyes the same as ever. Write soon and tell all about
+that portrait. Duesseldorf rencontre was jolly." The letter is headed
+by a drawing representing me soaring heavenwards, whilst he, chained
+to the spot, is philosophically consulting the cards on his prospects
+of release.
+
+[Illustration] Then comes a postscript: "Going in for this sort of
+thing."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Will you come old fellow and be
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I suppose I answered saying that I only put off writing till I had
+mustered the full complement of periodicals. If I was in a prophetic
+mood I may have added that it was all right, and that very shortly
+thirty-six editors would be clamouring for his work, and perhaps
+thirty-six States hallooing for him to come over _immediately_. Hoping
+to be punch'd at an early date, I probably remained his, &c., &c.
+
+The early date came, for, before his final return to England, we met
+once more in Antwerp and Malines. And that takes me back to Carry.
+She was changed to her advantage, so, at least, the world of Malines
+thought. We were not quite so sure that the change would prove
+altogether to her advantage. She had been quite pretty enough before,
+and we thought she could well have done without developing further
+physical attractions. She had always known how to use her eyes, not
+unfrequently shedding their beneficent light on two persons at the
+same time, and we considered that that number should not be exceeded.
+But now their activity seemed daily increasing, and it was not without
+concern that we noticed in her a certain restlessness and a growing
+tendency to discuss with the serpent questions relating to the
+acquisition of prohibited apples. After a while, and perhaps in
+consequence of the good advice we gave her, she sobered down and
+surprised us by her docility; but at best her moods were uncertain and
+she puzzled us much.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Now, Bobtail," said Rag, as we walked along the sober old streets
+of Malines, discussing the state of Carry's mind and heart. (He has
+omitted the streets, but has put us into our very best mediaeval suit.)
+"Now, Bobtail, what do you think? Is she in love? And if so, with
+whom?"
+
+"She may be, or she may be not," said Bobtail, with oracular
+discretion; "but, if she is, it can only be with one of us. She would
+not waste her sentiment on a native whilst we were within reach."
+
+"But which of us is it?" asked Rag, somewhat alarmed.
+
+"I know not; but I hope neither," answered the oracle thus appealed
+to; "but the state of her mind, I believe, is this: If she were to
+marry you, she would fall in love with me; and if she were to marry
+me, she would fall in love with you."
+
+This dictum must have impressed du Maurier, for it started him on
+a series of drawings, with accompanying text in illustration of it.
+There were to be two volumes. The first, in which I figure as the
+husband, was rapidly produced; the second, in which he was to be the
+husband, never saw the light of day. It was shelved _sine die_, a
+proceeding I always thought particularly unfair, as he never gave _me_
+a chance of being loved. I am compensated, however, by the possession
+of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or "Cari-catures," as
+they are called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  "If Carry were to marry one of us,
+  I'd give thee any odds she would be safe,
+  O Rag, to love the other--"
+
+      (_Shakespere_. "_Two Swells of Antwerp_.")
+
+"Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story illustrates
+the truth of the poet's words. His points will be so much better
+understood later on, when some of the problems connected with our
+matrimonial laws have been solved, that it would be a pity to publish
+them prematurely. Suffice it to show how Felix and Georges produced
+the portrait of Picciola. "Felix put all his talent and Georges all
+his good will into it, for, once completed, Picciola was to select
+a husband from the two suitors. After much cogitation she decides
+for Felix, whilst offering her friendship to Georges, who seems but
+moderately satisfied with this arrangement; and then, when husband and
+wife leave for distant countries, Georges, who cannot bear the thought
+of being parted from his dear Picciola, enters the service of the
+young couple and accompanies them on their honeymoon." This mythical
+journey gives the author opportunities for the subtle psychological
+analysis of a young lady's heart, strongly inclined to revolt against
+some of the conventions laid down by Society for its regulation.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PICCIOLA.]
+
+We had fondly hoped we might escort and protect her on the thorny
+path of life, as pertinently shown in the drawing,[3] where we are
+all three going along, our arms and hands fraternally intertwined and
+linked together in perfect symmetry, as if therewith to tie the knot
+of friendship and make it fast for ever and a day.
+
+[Footnote 3: See Frontispiece.]
+
+[Illustration: "ON THEIR HONEYMOON."]
+
+But it was not to be. A big wave intervened to separate us, and swept
+away all traces of the road before us. Poor Carry! Yes, she had a
+story. Sad. Bright. Then sad again. First she gave to Amor what was
+Amor's, and then to Hymen what was Hymen's. She tasted of the apple
+her friend the serpent had told her so much about. Then--"la femme
+a une chute est rare comme le Niagara"--and there are more apples
+than one in the Garden of Eden--she tried another; such a bad one
+unfortunately. It was a wonder it didn't poison her, body and soul,
+but it didn't. There was a moment when the Angel with the flaming
+sword threatened to cast her adrift, and it would have fared badly
+with her had not a helping hand come to save her. But sound as she
+was at the core, and true, she rallied and rose again to new life and
+unhoped-for happiness. It was a young doctor who came to the rescue;
+a mere boy he seemed to look at; but a man he was in deed and word. He
+worked hard and walked fast; he defied convention and challenged fate.
+With a stout heart he laboured to raise Carry to the level of his
+affections, and with a strong hand he tightened his hold upon her. He
+loved her passionately, devotedly, and she, clinging to him as to the
+instrument of her salvation, gradually regained her better self, and,
+slowly but surely, learnt to find in her own heart the greatest of
+treasures that woman can bestow upon man. But he was a Southerner of
+the French meridional type, excitable and impulsive, and, so, alas!
+he was jealous of Carry's northern friends and snapped the thread
+asunder that bound her to them. We only knew, and that we learnt in
+a roundabout way, that she was the happiest little wife in Paris.
+Once, and only once, she wrote to us, to tell us how complete was
+her happiness. A crowning glory had come; a little glory to nurse
+and fondle, to cry over--tears of joy; to smile to--the prettiest,
+foolishest of mother's smiles; to pray for and to worship from the
+bottom of her little blossoming soul. It was not till three years
+later that I was in Paris and succeeded in picking up the thread of
+Carry's story. Hale and hearty, overflowing with health and happiness,
+the young doctor had gone to his work at the hospital. He came
+home blood-poisoned, to die in his wife's arms. It was a case of
+self-sacrifice in the cause of science, of heroic devotion to a
+fellow-creature. And the young widow was left alone again, with none
+to weep over (tears of anguish this time) but the little glory, who,
+poor thing, could only wonder, but not soothe. What can have become
+of Carry once more cast adrift in Paris to fight the battle of life in
+this hard ever love-making world?
+
+We never knew.
+
+Back to England. The time had come when--
+
+  "Who was to be lucky and who to be rich,
+  Who'd get to the top of the tree;
+  Was a mystery which
+  Dame Fortune, the witch,
+  _Was_ to tell du Maurier and me."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+What with the boxing-gloves and one thing and another, he had been
+"getting English again by degrees." In a drawing he shows us how he
+is going through the process arm-in-arm with his old friend, Tom
+Armstrong, now the Art-Director of that very English institution, the
+South Kensington Museum. Armstrong and T.R. Lamont, the man who to
+this day bears such a striking resemblance to our friend the Laird,
+had presented du Maurier with a complete edition of Edgar Allan Poe's
+works. His appreciation of that author is expressed in a letter which
+he addressed to Armstrong, and it needs not much reading between the
+lines to gather what was the literary diet best suited to his taste.
+It is amusing, too, to notice the little shadows cast here and there
+by coming events.
+
+(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time being,
+synonymous with George du Maurier.)
+
+  "Gulielmus Barlow, Thomasino Armstrong,
+  Whom we hope is 'gaillardement' getting along
+  And salubrious, ave!
+
+                     You'll wonder, I ween,
+  At Barlow's turning topsy-tur--poet I mean.
+  I take odds you'll exclaim, 'twixt a grunt and a stare,
+  'Gottferdummi' the beggar's gone mad, I declare,
+  And his wits must have followed his 'peeper'--not so;
+  He will give you the wherefore, will William Barlow--
+  Viz: he's so seedy and blue, he's so deucedly triste,
+  He's so d----d out of sorts, he's so d----d out of tune,
+  That for mere consolation he cannot resist
+  The temptation of holding with Tommy commune.
+  Then that _he_ should be bothered alone, isn't fair,
+  So he'll just bother _you_ a bit, pour se distraire,
+  This will partly account for the milk--then the fact is
+  That some heavy swell says that it's deuced good practice,
+  And then it's a natural consequence, too,
+  Of the classical culture he's just been put through.
+  I'll explain: T'other day the maternal did say,
+  'You are sadly deficient in reading, Bill; nay
+  Do not wrinkle your forehead and turn up your nose
+  (That elegant feature of William Barlow's!)
+  You've read Thackeray, Dickens, I know; but it's fit
+  You should study the _classical_ authors a bit.
+  Heaven knows when your sight will be valid again,
+  You may throw down the pencil and take up the pen,
+  And you cannot have too many strings to your bow.'
+  --'A-a-amen!' says young William to Mrs. Barlow.
+
+  So we're treated (our feelings we needn't define)
+  To a beastly slow book called the 'Fall and Decline'
+  By a fellow called Gibbon, be d----d to him; then
+  Comes the 'Esprit des lois et des moeurs,' from the pen
+  Of a chap hight _Voltaire_--un pedant--qui je crois
+  Ne se fichait pas mal et des moeurs et des lois.
+  After which just to vary the pleasures, _Rousseau_
+  By Emile--no: Emile by _Rousseau_? Gad! I know
+  That which ever it be it's infernally slow,
+  And I'm glad Billy's neither Emile nor Rousseau--
+  Such my fate is to listen to, longing to slope--
+  Then come horrid long epics of Dryden and Pope,
+  Which I mentally swear a big oath I'll confine
+  To the tombs of the Capulets, every line--
+  Not but what the old beggars may do in their way,
+  Gad! Uncommonly fine soporifics are they;
+  But they seem after Tennyson, Shelley, and Poe
+  Just a trifle _too_ Rosy for Billy Barlow--
+  Oh, dear Raggedy, oh!
+  Ulalume and AEnone for William Barlow.
+
+  Erst, they're short. Then they breathe in their mystical tone
+  An essence, a spirit, a draught which alone
+  Can content Billy's lust, for the weird and unknown
+  (Billy's out of his depth) they've an undefined sense
+  Of the infinite 'mersed in their sorrow intense
+  (Billy's sinking! A rope! Some one quick! Damn it! hence
+  That mystical feeling so sweetly profound
+  Which weaves round the senses a spell (Billy's drowned)
+  (Here run for the drags of the Royal Humane!)
+  A mystical feeling, half rapture, half pain,
+  Such as moves in sweet melodies, such as entrances
+  In Chopin's 'Etudes,' and in Schubert's 'Romances.'
+
+  Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'!
+  Have you ever heard these pretty decently played?
+  If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe
+  That a treat most delicious you have in reserve.
+  Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of clover,
+  While Stefani rapidly fingers them over,
+  Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over.
+  Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream
+  Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme,
+  Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme!
+  Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem,
+  In their sad wild unresting irregular flow
+  Just expressly concocted for William Barlow.
+  Oh! dear Raggedy, oh!
+  Why, they ravish the heart, sir, of Billy Barlow."
+
+Du Maurier's stay on the Continent had come to a close some time
+before mine, and to that circumstance I owe several letters in which
+he speaks of his first experiences in London. He revelled in the
+metamorphosis he was going through, and illustrated the past and the
+present for my better comprehension. There on one side of the Channel
+he shows the dejected old lion of Malines gnawing his tobaccoless clay
+pipe, and then on the other the noble beast stalking along jauntily
+with tail erect and havannah alight. He wrote in high spirits:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    "DEAR BOBTAIL,--I need not tell you how very jolly it was to
+    get your letter and to hear good news of you. My reason for
+    not writing was that I intended to make my position before
+    giving of my news to anybody. I was just funky and blue about
+    it at first, but fortunately I was twigged almost immediately,
+    and, barring my blessed idleness, am getting on splendaciously
+    just now. Lots of my things have been out. I'm going in for
+    becoming a swell.
+
+    "How strange to think of such a change. I'm leading the
+    merriest of lives, and only hope it will last. Living with
+    Henley, No. 85, Newman Street; very jolly and comfortable.
+    Chumming with all the old Paris fellows again, all of them
+    going ahead. There's Whistler is already one of the great
+    celebrities here--Poynter getting on. This is a very jolly
+    little village, and I wish you were over here. They do make
+    such a fuss with an agreeable fellow like you or me, for
+    instance. But I suppose Paris is just as jolly in its way.
+    My ideas of Paris are all Boheme, quartier latin, &c., et si
+    c'etait a recommencer, ma foi je crois que je dirais 'zut.'
+    This is a hurried and absurd letter to write to an old pal
+    like you, but I hardly ever have time for a line--out late
+    every night and make use of what little daylight there is in
+    Newman Street to draw. 'S'il faisait au moins clair de Lune
+    pendant le jour dans ce sacre pays.' I daresay I shall treat
+    myself to a trip over to Paris as soon as the weather is
+    jollier. I intend to go abroad this summer to do some etchings
+    'qui seront aux pommes.' Is there any chance whatever of your
+    coming over here before? You mustn't form your opinion of my
+    performances by what you may happen to see, as half of what I
+    do is spoiled by bad engraving (that's why I intend to etch),
+    and what I have done, bar one or two things, are merely little
+    chic sketches for money. I have many plans; among others I
+    intend to bring out a series in _Punch_, with which I shall
+    take peculiar care--something quite original. I think you
+    would precious soon get more portraits than you could paint
+    here, but if you are getting on so well in Paris, of course it
+    would be madness to leave. But I do not like the idea of your
+    not being one of us--such a band of brothers full of jolly
+    faults that dovetail beautifully. It was quite a freak of mine
+    coming over here; I did it against everybody's advice--came
+    over with a ten-pound note and made the rest. 'Your friend
+    Bobtail seems to be the only man who had no doubt of your
+    talent,' writes my mother. 'Enfin c'est prouve que je suis au
+    moins bon a quelque chose.' Do you go much into the world?
+    I go knocking about as happily as possible, singing and
+    smoking cigars everywhere. Jimmy Whistler and I go 'tumbling'
+    together, as Thackeray says. Would you were here to tumble
+    with us! Enfin, mon bon, ecris moi vite."
+
+When at last I too returned to London I was privileged to take my
+humble share in the "tumbling," as also in the steady process that was
+gradually to wean us from Bohemia. We tumbled pretty regularly into
+the Pamphilon, a restaurant within a stone's throw of Oxford Circus,
+of the familiar type that exhibits outside its door a bill of fare
+with prices appended, to be studied by those who count their shillings
+and pence as we did. We had got beyond the days when no wines are sour
+and when tough meat passes muster, if there is only plenty of it; we
+wanted a sound dinner, and we got it at the Pamphilon; to wind up we
+adjourned to the coffee-room and talked and read and smoked.
+
+Stacey Marks, Poynter, Jimmy Whistler, and Charles Keene were among
+the crew, and others not so well known to fame. Pleasant hours those
+and gemuethliche, as the Germans say; how different the after-dinner
+clay pipe or cheap weed of those times to the post-prandial havannah
+we now complacently whiff at our friend's Maecenas' hospitable table!
+Yes, things have changed, my dear Rag, since the day we were paying
+our bill, and you addressed the waiter with superb affability: "Here,
+Charles, is a penny for you. I know it isn't much, but I can't afford
+more."
+
+It is hard to fancy anything less like Bohemia than Regent Street,
+but a little incident that occurred as I walked down that busy
+thoroughfare one afternoon recalls the best traditions of the land in
+which practical jokes abound. I was going along without any definite
+aim, killing time and gathering wool, flaneing, in fact; perhaps there
+was a touch of the foreigner about me, for I had only lately returned
+from abroad; anyway I suddenly found myself singled out as a fit
+subject to be victimised. I felt a hand stealthily sliding into my
+pocket; on the spur of the moment I grasped that hand in as much of an
+iron grip as I could muster. Then--I hardly know why--I waited quite
+a number of seconds before I turned round. When I did, it was du
+Maurier's face that I beheld, blanched with terror. Those seconds
+had been ages to him. Good heavens! had he made a mistake? Was it not
+Bobtail's but another man's hand that was clutching his wrist? Thank
+Heaven, it was Bobtail's!
+
+There never was an occasion, before or after, I feel absolutely sure,
+when du Maurier was more truly glad to see me. His colour rapidly
+returned, and he swore that of all the bonnes blagues this was the
+best; but for all that, one thing is certain--he has never since
+attempted to pick pockets in Regent Street.
+
+A delightful compromise between Bohemia and the land where
+well-regulated Society rules supreme, was the ground on which stood
+Moray Lodge, the residence of Arthur Lewis, the head of the well-known
+firm of Lewis and Allenby.
+
+We have read of him before:--
+
+    "Sir Lewis Cornelys, as everybody knows, lives in a palace on
+    Campden Hill, a house of many windows, and, whichever window
+    he looks out of, he sees his own garden and very little else.
+    There was no pleasanter or more festive house than his in
+    London, winter or summer."
+
+I quote this, as probably it may not be known to everybody that Sir
+Lewis was knighted on the memorable occasion of Trilby's birthday,
+when she was presented at the drawing--and every other--room. With
+much kindly fore-thought his friend and biographer allows him to be
+eighty years old in the early sixties, thereby enabling him to have
+attained to-day the ripe old age of one hundred and fourteen.
+
+Well, he was one of du Maurier's earliest friends, and when Taffy
+the Laird, and Little Billie, "a-smokin' their pipes and cigyars,"
+told the cabby to drive to Mechelen Lodge, I found my way to what I
+called Moray Lodge, and met them there. And there too, to be sure,
+was Glorioli, "the tall, good-looking swarthy foreigner from whose
+scarcely parted, moist, thick, bearded lips issued the most ravishing
+sounds that had ever been heard from throat of man or woman or boy."
+
+As we now empty one or the other of the million bottles that are
+about, marked "De Soria, Bordeaux," we often think with gratitude of
+the great wine-grower and still greater singer, so correctly described
+as "singing best for love or glory in the studios of his friends."
+
+To return to Arthur Lewis:--
+
+He occupied an exceptional position, inasmuch as he had made his house
+a centre towards which intellectual London gravitated. When he had
+done this, that, and the other to make his bachelor days memorable to
+a host of friends, he wound up by marrying one of England's fairest
+women, our great actress, Kate Terry. It was in those early days that
+Ellen, the debutante, was introduced to the dramatic world as "Kate
+Terry's sister." Since then Kate, having elected to rest on her
+laurels, is proud to be referred to by the younger generation as
+"Ellen Terry's sister."
+
+In early life Lewis had various roads open to him. Born, as he was,
+with the capacity of a man of business, the means and opportunities of
+a man of leisure, and the talents of an artist, he managed to follow
+the three roads at the same time, and they all led to well-deserved
+success. He was to be found at his desk in Regent Street, at his easel
+in the studio, or on the threshold of that big billiard and reception
+room which he had built to entertain his friends. Himself an artist,
+and for many years a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he was on
+terms of close friendship with the men who had made their mark in the
+art-world, and with many who were destined to become famous. He was
+a Maecenas of the right sort, knowing a good thing when he came across
+it, and frequently acquiring it before the sleepy world awoke to its
+merits.
+
+I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he welcomed the first
+pictures Joseph Israels exhibited in England in 1862. Neither in
+the English nor in the Dutch department of the Exhibition could he
+ascertain whether these two pictures, "The Drowned Fisherman" and
+"Washing the Cradle," were for sale. But luck would have it that he
+was introduced to Israels at the Academy _soiree_, and the artist,
+assuring him that the pictures were "certainly for sale," Lewis
+secured the coveted works, and was thus the first to establish
+Israels' fame in England.
+
+The gatherings in Moray Lodge were unique in their way. It was
+characteristic of the master and the house that they made everybody
+feel at home, from the titled aristocrat in the dress-suit to the
+free-and-easy brother-brush or pen, and the sometimes out-at-elbow
+friend Bohemian.
+
+There was the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of Lorne, Lord Dufferin,
+Mr. Frederic Leighton, Associate of the Royal Academy, Fred Walker,
+who sang tenor in the choir, of which more presently, and who on
+several occasions designed the cards of invitation for Lewis.
+There was Lord Houghton, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rossetti,
+Landseer, Daubigny, Gustave Dore, Arthur Sullivan, Leech, Keene,
+Tenniel, &c., &c. It is as hard to pass those names over without
+comment as it must have been to run the gauntlet of Scylla and
+Charybdis, for every one of them brings back some recollection, and
+calls upon the pen to start a paragraph with an "I well remember."
+
+But that would lead me away from Moray Lodge and the famous Saturday
+evenings, and I never was, and am not now, in a hurry to get away from
+that hospitable mansion.
+
+The billiard-table was boxed over on the gala nights and transformed
+into a buffet. It was covered with bottles and glasses, pipes and
+cigars, and towards the close of the evening with mountains of
+oysters. The amount we consumed on one occasion was 278 dozen, as I
+happen to know. But the great attraction at these gatherings was the
+part-singing of the twenty-five "Moray Minstrels." John Foster was the
+conductor, and led them to such perfection that the severest critic of
+the day, dear old crabbed Henry F. Chorley, proclaimed them the best
+representatives of the English school of glee-singing.
+
+Another no less interesting feature was the performance of small
+theatrical pieces. Du Maurier and Harold Power had given us charming
+musical duologues, like "Les Deux Aveugles," by Offenbach, and "Les
+Deux Gilles," with great success, and that led to further developments
+and far-reaching consequences. A small party of friends were dining
+with Lewis. "What shall we get up next?" was the question raised.
+"Something new and original," suggested the host. "Now, Sullivan, you
+should write us something." "All right," said Sullivan, "but how about
+the words? Where's the libretto?" "Oh, I'll write that," said Burnand.
+And thus those two were started. "Cox and Box," a travesty of "Box
+and Cox," was read and rehearsed a fortnight afterwards at Burnand's
+house, and the following Saturday it was performed at Moray Lodge.
+Du Maurier was "Box," Harold Power "Cox," and John Foster "Sergeant
+Bouncer." Du Maurier's rendering of "Hush-a-by, Bacon," was so
+sympathetic and tender that one's heart went out to the contents of
+the frying-pan, wishing them pleasant dreams.
+
+Then there was his famous duet with "Box," reciting their marriage to
+one and the same lady, and the long recitative in which the printer
+describes his elaborate preparations for suicide.
+
+How he solemnly walked to the cliff and heard the seagulls' mournful
+cry--and looked all around--there was nobody nigh. Then (disposing his
+bundle on the brink)--"Away to the opposite side I walked." ("Away"
+on the high A, that Sullivan put in on purpose for du Maurier, who
+possessed that chest-note in great fulness.)
+
+I must skip a few years and speak of a drawing that appeared in
+_Punch_ in 1875,[4] and which has a special interest for me; it brings
+back to my mind a happy thought of du Maurier's, which is closely
+connected with a particularly happy thought of my own, that took root
+then and has flourished ever since.
+
+[Footnote 4: Published by kind permission of the proprietors of
+_Punch_.]
+
+I must explain that there was a time when I had to console myself
+with the reflection that the course of true love never runs smooth. A
+lady whom in my mind I had selected as a mother-in-law, by no means
+reciprocated my feelings of respect and goodwill. But the young lady,
+her daughter, fortunately sided with me, and had, in fact, given her
+very willing consent to the change in her mother's position which I
+had suggested. I was naturally anxious to assure that young lady as
+frequently and as emphatically as possible how much I appreciated
+her assistance, and how determined I was never to have any other
+mother-in-law but the one of my choice; nor could there be anything
+obscure in such a declaration, as of three sisters in the family that
+particular one was the only unmarried one. But neither in obscure nor
+in explicit language was I allowed to approach her; a blockade was
+declared and rigorously enforced, and we were soon separated by a
+distance of some few hundred miles.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I can look back complacently on the troubles of those days now that
+twenty years have elapsed since I emerged victorious from the contest;
+but then the future looked blank and bleak, and I felt nonplussed and
+down-hearted. Knowing, however, what a faint heart is said never to
+win, I was anxious to keep mine up to the mark, and with a view to
+stimulating its buoyancy I went to make a friendly call on du Maurier.
+He would, I felt sure, be sympathetic, and, whatever else might be
+wanting in that troublesome eye of his, there would be a certain
+vivifying twinkle in it that could always set me up.
+
+It was as I expected, and I had the full benefit of the eye, and of an
+ear, too, that he lent willingly as I told him how matters stood.
+
+"Well," he said, "if you can't smuggle in a letter, let's smuggle in
+your portrait. It will be rather a joke if she comes across you in
+_Punch_. I've just got a subject in which I can use you."
+
+To be sure, I jumped at the idea, only beseeching him to make me
+as handsome as he possibly could, without losing sight of the main
+object, viz., that the young lady should be able to recognise me. Her
+mother too, I felt sure, would not fail to be duly impressed, for to
+figure in _Punch_ would raise me in her estimation as a person of no
+small importance.
+
+The drawing was made and published, and the scheme worked well;
+coupled, perhaps, with a few millions of other influences, and with
+the assistance of the Fates, it achieved the desired result, and
+before a year had elapsed the original drawing could be presented
+by du Maurier to the young lady, now become a bride, as a memento of
+bygone troubles.
+
+One more digression suggested by the name of Arthur Sullivan; it
+shall be the last. I am not going back to the time when we were boys
+together in Leipsic, but will only mention him in connection with
+Carry; this time Carry in another form.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Shortly after that big wave intervened that separated her from us a
+happy chance put me in possession of a dog, the most affectionate and
+lovable of Skye terriers.
+
+I named him Carry.
+
+That dog, his qualities and virtues, and especially his musical gifts,
+deserve more than a passing mention; but, trusting that he, like every
+dog, will have his day, I will here only transcribe a letter of his
+that he wrote with the assistance of his friend, Arthur Sullivan, who,
+attracted perhaps by the gifts above named, had kindly taken charge of
+him during my temporary absence on the Continent. Poor dog! He is dead
+now; so that there can be no indiscretion in publishing his bark and
+its translation. The former is best given in its original setting.
+The latter, purporting to be a "Translation of the foregoing by A.S.,"
+runs as follows:--
+
+    "MY DEAR AND ESTEEMED MASTER,--My kind friend, Mr. Sullivan,
+    who pretends to be as fond of me as you are, has taken me away
+    from the enjoyment of a delicious mutton bone, in order to
+    answer your letter; and as I cannot find a pen to suit me
+    well, he is writing whilst I dictate. I was very low-spirited
+    the other day after leaving you, and appeared to feel the
+    parting very much, but it soon wore off under the influence
+    of biscuit, bones, and kindness; indeed, I must do Sully and
+    his family the justice to say that they try to do the utmost
+    to make me happy and comfortable, although they don't always
+    succeed, for sometimes I appear dissatisfied (hoping,
+    _entre-nous_, by that means to get more out of them).
+
+    "I have several idiosyncrasies and failings, of which my
+    master (_pro tem._) is trying to correct me, but finds it
+    rather hard work, for I am not so easily brought out of them.
+    I have a will of my own, but Sully says: 'Train up a dog in
+    the way it should go, and he will not depart, &c., &c.'--and
+    Sully is right.
+
+    "Don't you think it is a bad plan to wash me with soap? I
+    think it deters me from licking my skin, and consequently
+    from having those ideas of cleanliness engendered within me
+    which are so necessary to every well-bred dog moving in good
+    society!
+
+    "I want to get back to my bone, but Sully says I must first
+    deliver a message from him. You are to give his love to your
+    dear parents (in which I heartily join), and tell them how
+    grieved he was that he did not see them to wish them 'God
+    speed' before they left England, and how it hurt him to think
+    that a long, long time would perhaps elapse before he should
+    see them again.
+
+    "And now, my dear master, I must say 'Good-bye.' Much love in
+    few words, in which Sully joins me.
+
+    "Believe me, ever your
+
+    "Attached and faithful dog,
+
+    [Illustration: Carry
+
+    X
+
+    his mark]
+
+    "F. MOSCHELES, Esq."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now I come to du Maurier's last letter--the best, as I am sure
+every right-minded person will admit. I have kept it "pour la bonne
+bouche" (excuse my quoting French. "Will me not of it," as our
+neighbours say; there are unassailable precedents for such quoting,
+you know--or ought to know). The letter in question speaks of an event
+so momentous, that of all events it is the one most worthy to "be
+marked with a white, white stone"; and marked it was, if not with a
+stone, with satins and laces and a veil and white orange blossoms.
+
+"Come and be introduced to the future Mrs. Kicky," it said. "She
+intends to celebrate her 21st birthday by a small dance. There will
+be friends and pretty girls, 'en veux tu, en viola.' So rek-lect,
+olf'lah, Tuesday, at half-past seven."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The drawing shows how I was introduced, and how graciously I was
+received.
+
+The letter needs a word of explanation, as it speaks of the "future
+Mrs. 'Kicky,'" and I have not yet mentioned that Kicky was but another
+name for du Maurier. He got it at an early period of his life. Just
+as any other baby less favoured by "Dame Fortune the witch" would have
+done, he gave himself his nickname. He picked it up in Brussels when
+he was two years old, and under the care of Flemish servants. They
+called him "Mannekin" (little man), and that he converted into
+"Kicky." I append one of the numerous varieties of his signature.
+
+[Illustration: Kick]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rag, Tag, and Bobtail had its day, and was shelved soon after
+we bid adieu to Bohemia; but the Kicky survived and flourished, and
+to-day not only his old chums, but those nearest and dearest to him,
+feel that they could not do without that particular appellation,
+associated as it is with a thousand and one happy memories.
+
+And having arrived at that busiest of stations, the Matrimonial
+Junction, where the converted bachelor alights and changes for Better
+or for Worse, this chapter fitly comes to a close, meant as it was
+only to sketch some of the pleasant recollections that I, in common
+with so many of his friends, have of du Maurier's bachelor days.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's In Bohemia with Du Maurier, by Felix Moscheles
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