al extravagance out of
which arose the fancy of Boythorn. With tremendous emphasis he confirmed
the fact, and added that he had never in his life regretted anything so
much as his having failed to carry out an intention he had formed
respecting it; for he meant to have purchased that house, 35, St.
James's Square, and then and there to have burnt it to the ground, to
the end that no meaner association should ever desecrate the birthplace
of Nell. Then he would pause a little, become conscious of our sense of
his absurdity, and break into a thundering peal of laughter." Dickens
had himself proposed to tell this story as a contribution to my
biography of our common friend, but his departure for America prevented
him. "I see," he wrote to me, as soon as the published book reached him,
"you have told, with what our friend would have called _won_-derful
accuracy, the little St. James's Square story, which a certain faithless
wretch was to have related."

[30] _Poems._ By Bret Harte (Boston: Osgood & Co., 1871), pp. 32-35.

CHAPTER XIII.

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE AND BROADSTAIRS.

1840.

A Good Saying--Landor mystified--The Mirthful
Side of Dickens--Extravagant Flights--Humorous
Despair--Riding Exercise--First of the
Ravens--The Groom Topping--The Smoky
Chimneys--Juryman at an Inquest--Practical
Humanity--Publication of _Clock's_ First
Number--Transfer of _Barnaby_ settled--A True
Prediction--Revisiting Old Scenes--C. D. to
Chapman & Hall--Terms of Sale of _Barnaby_--A
Gift to a Friend--Final Escape from
Bondage--Published Libels about him--Said to be
demented--To be insane and turned
Catholic--Begging Letter-Writers--A Donkey
asked for--Mr. Kindheart--Friendly
Meetings--Social Talk--Reconciling
Friends--Hint for judging Men.

IT was an excellent saying of the first Lord Shaftesbury, that, seeing
every man of any capacity holds within himself two men, the wise and the
foolish, each of them ought freely to be allowed his turn; and it was
one of the secrets of Dickens's social charm that he could, in strict
accordance with this saying, allow each part of him its turn; could
afford thoroughly to give rest and relief to what was serious in him,
and, when the time came to play his gambols, could surrender himself
wholly to the enjoyment of the time, and become the very genius and
embodiment