ornamental
one,--some such golden sinecure as that of the old High Chamberlains.
Nothing could be more mistaken. "Not everybody," wrote the late Mr.
Underhill, who for some time, as private secretary to Sir Frederic
Leighton, had special opportunities of knowing, "is aware of the tax
upon a man's time and energy that is involved in the acceptance of the
office in question. The post is a peculiar one, and requires a
combination of talents not frequently to be found, inasmuch as it
demands an established standing as a painter, together with great
urbanity and considerable social position. The inroads which the
occupancy of the office makes upon an artist's time are very
considerable. There is, on the average, at least one Council meeting for
every three weeks throughout the whole of the year. There are from time
to time general assemblies for the election of new members and for other
purposes, over which the President is bound, of course, to preside. For
ten days or a fortnight in every April he has to be in attendance with
the Council daily at Burlington House, for the purpose of selecting the
pictures which are to be hung in the Spring Exhibition. He has to
preside over the banquet which yearly precedes the opening of the
Academy, and he has to act as host at the annual conversazione. Finally,
it is his duty every other year to deliver a long, elaborate, and
carefully prepared 'Discourse' upon matters connected with art, to the
students who are for that purpose assembled. It is a post of much honour
and small profit."

[Illustration: SISTER'S KISS (1880)
_By permission of the Fine Art Society_]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SIGNOR COSTA (1879)]

In filling this post, and neglecting no one of its smallest offices and
endless small courtesies, an artist had needs be without the
characteristic artist's defects of hesitation and delay; and in fact,
Lord Leighton mastered, as much as any statesman of our time, the
indispensable secret of despatch. We quote from Mr. Underhill again:
"To administer the affairs of the Academy, to fulfil a round of social
semi-public and public engagements, and to paint pictures which
invariably reach a high level of excellence, would of course be
impossible--even to Sir Frederic Leighton--were it not for the fact that
he makes the very most of the time at his disposal. 'That's the secret,'
remarked a distinguished member of the Academy to the present writer
some little ti