of a literary mixture novel and
fascinating in the last degree: he blends the airy epicureanism of the
_salons_ of Augustus with the full-bodied gaiety of our English
cider-cellar. With our people and country, _mon cher_, this mixture is
now the very thing to go down; there arises every day a larger public
for it; and we, Sala's disciples, may be trusted not willingly to let it
die."

That was written in 1871; and, when sixteen years had elapsed, I thought
it would be safe, and I knew it would be amusing, to bring Sala and
Matthew Arnold face to face at dinner. For the credit of human nature
let it be recorded that the experiment was entirely successful; for, as
Lord Beaconsfield said, "Turtle makes all men equal," and vindictiveness
is exorcised by champagne.

The Journalist of Society in those days was Mr. T. H. S. Escott, who was
also Editor of the _Fortnightly_ and leader-writer of the _Standard_. I
should be inclined to think that no writer in London worked so hard; and
he paid the penalty in shattered health. It is a pleasure to me, who in
those days owed much to his kindness, to witness the renewal of his
early activities, and to welcome volume after volume from his prolific
pen. Mr. Kegan Paul, essayist, critic, editor, and ex-clergyman, was
always an interesting figure; and his successive transitions from
Tractarianism to Latitudinarianism, and from Agnosticism to
Ultramontanism, gave a peculiar piquancy to his utterances on religion.
He deserves remembrance on two quite different scores--one, that he was
the first publisher to study prettiness in the production of even cheap
books; and the other, that he was an early and enthusiastic worker in
the cause of National Temperance. It was my privilege to be often with
him in the suffering and blindness of his last years, and I have never
seen a trying discipline more bravely borne.

More than once in these chapters I have referred to "Billy Johnson," as
his pupils and friends called William Cory in remembrance of old times.
He was from 1845 to 1872 the most brilliant tutor at Eton: an
astonishing number of eminent men passed through his hands, and retained
through life the influence of his teaching. After leaving Eton, he
changed his name from Johnson to Cory, and established himself on the
top of the hill at Hampstead, where he freely imparted the treasures of
his exquisite scholarship to all who cared to seek them, and not least
willingly to young ladies. He