ty to her principles, but the
fact that she got rid of herself, and so made one old maid fewer.

"What shall we do with our old maids?" he would ask, and then answer the
question himself--"Oh, enlist them. With a little training they would
make first-rate soldiers." He was also prejudiced against saints, and
said of one, "I presume she was so called because of the enormity of her
crimes."

Although Mrs. Burton often reproved her husband for his barbed and
irritating remarks, her own tongue had, incontestibly, a very beautiful
edge on it. Witness her reply to Mrs. X., who declared that when she met
Burton she was inexpressibly shocked by his Chaucerian conversation and
Canopic wit.

"I can quite believe," commented Mrs. Burton, sweetly, "that on
occasions when no lady was present Richard's conversation might have
been startling."

How tasteful is this anecdote, as they say in The Nights, "and how
enjoyable and delectable."

111. Burton begins his Translation, April 1884.

As we have already observed, Mr. Payne's 500 copies of the Thousand
Nights and a Night were promptly snapped up by the public and 1,500
persons had to endure disappointment. "You should at once," urged
Burton, "bring out a new edition." "I have pledged myself," replied Mr.
Payne, "not to reproduce the book in an unexpurgated form."

"Then," said Burton, "Let me publish a new edition in my own name and
account to you for the profits--it seems a pity to lose these 1,500
subscribers." This was a most generous and kind-hearted, but, from
a literary point of view, immoral proposition; and Mr. Payne at once
rejected it, declaring that he could not be a party to a breach of
faith with the subscribers in any shape or form. Mr. Payne's virtue
was, pecuniarily and otherwise, its punishment. Still, he has had the
pleasure of a clear conscience. Burton, however, being, as always, short
of money, felt deeply for these 1,500 disappointed subscribers, who were
holding out their nine-guinea cheques in vain; and he then said "Should
you object to my making an entirely new translation?" To which, of
course, Mr. Payne replied that he could have no objection whatever.
Burton then set to work in earnest. This was in April, 1884. As we
pointed out in Chapter xxii., Lady Burton's account of the inception and
progress of the work and Burton's own story in the Translator's Foreword
(which precedes his first volume) bristle with misstatements and
inaccuracies. H