in
those days, was the book-binding department.

163. Mr. Letchford, August and September 1889.

In July, for Burton found it impossible to content himself long in
any place, the Burtons made another journey, this time through Western
Austria, being accompanied as usual by Dr. Baker and Lisa. After their
return, on September 13th, it was necessary for Burton to undergo two
operations; and Lady Burton, racked with anxiety and fearing the
worst, seemed, when all was successfully over, to have recovered from
a horrible nightmare. Then followed acquaintance with the gifted young
artist, Mr. Albert Letchford, and his beautiful and winning sister,
Daisy. Mr. Letchford became the Burtons' Court Painter, as it
were--frequently working in their house--and both he and his sister
admired--nay, worshipped Sir Richard down to the ground. Even as a
child, Albert Letchford was remarkable for his thoughtful look, and his
strong sense of beauty. In church one day he begged his mother to let
him run home and get his little sword, as there was such an ugly woman
there and he wished to cut her head off. As a youth he drew and studied
from morning to night, living in a world of his own creation--a world
of books and pictures. His letters were those of a poet and an artist.
Beauty of the mind, however, attracted him even more than beauty of the
body. Thus, he fell in love with his cousin Augusta, "though she had
the toothache, and her head tied up in a handkerchief." At seventeen he
studied art in Venice. From Venice he went to Florence, where he met
the Burtons and got from them introductions to all the best people,
including the Countess Orford and Mlle. de la Ramee (Ouida). We then
find him in Paris, in London, in Egypt, where he acquired that knowledge
of the East which helped him later when he illustrated The Arabian
Nights. Finally he settled at Trieste. "That wonderful man, Sir Richard
Burton, with the eyes of a tiger and the voice of an angel," writes Miss
Letchford, "loved my brother, for he found something more in him than in
others--he found a mind that could understand his own, and he often said
that Mr. Albert Letchford was about the only man that he was pleased
to see--the only one who never jarred on his nerves. To him did Sir
Richard, proud and arrogant to most people, open his soul, and from his
lips would come forth such enchanting conversation--such a wonderful
flow of words and so marvellous in sound that often