from him a week ago, asking me to dine with him
to-night, I accepted eagerly. He was just home, he said, and I would
meet an old Cambridge man. We were to dine at Jack's club, and I took
the photograph with me. I recognized Jack as soon as I entered the
waiting-room of the club. A very short, very fat, smooth-faced man was
sitting beside him, with his hands clasped behind his head. I believe I
gasped. 'Don't you remember Tom Rufus,' Jack asked, 'who used to play
the female part at the Cambridge A.D.C.? Why, you helped me to choose
his wig at Fox's. I have a photograph of him in costume somewhere at
home. You might recall him by his trick of sitting with his hands
clasped behind his head.' I shook Rufus's hand. I went in to dinner,
and probably behaved myself. Now that it is over I cannot help being
thankful that I did not ask Jack for the name of the lady before I saw
Rufus. Good-night. I think I've burned a hole in the pillow."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXVI.

ARCADIANS AT BAY.

I have said that Jimmy spent much of his time in contributing to various
leading waste-paper baskets, and that of an evening he was usually to
be found prone on my hearth-rug. When he entered my room he was ever
willing to tell us what he thought of editors, but his meerschaum with
the cherry-wood stem gradually drove all passion from his breast, and
instead of upbraiding more successful men than himself, he then lazily
scribbled letters to them on my wall-paper. The wall to the right of the
fireplace was thick with these epistles, which seemed to give Jimmy
relief, though William John had to scrape and scrub at them next morning
with india-rubber. Jimmy's sarcasm--to which that wall-paper can probably
still speak--generally took this form:

_To G. Buckle, Esq., Columbia Road, Shoreditch_.

SIR:--I am requested by Mr. James Moggridge, editor of the _Times_,
to return you the inclosed seven manuscripts, and to express his regret
that there is at present no vacancy in the sub-editorial department of
the _Times_ such as Mr. Buckle kindly offers to fill.

Yours faithfully,

P. R. (for J. Moggridge, Ed. _Times_).

_To Mr. James Knowles, Brick Lane, Spitalfields_.

DEAR SIR:--I regret to have to return the inclosed paper, which is
not quite suitable for the _Nineteenth Century_. I find that articles
by unknown men, however good in themselves, attract little attention.
I inclose list of contributors for next