with secret amusement for
the spasm I find this announcement invariably produces upon persons of
any education, 'it may possibly call up some associations in your mind
if I tell you that I am perhaps better known by my self-conferred
_sobriquet_ of "Vitriol."'

Evidently I had to do with a man of some intelligence--I obtained an
even more electrical effect than usual. '"_Vitriol!_"' he cried, '_not_
surely Vitriol, the great critic?'

'The same,' I said carelessly. 'I thought I had better mention it.'

'You did well,' he rejoined, 'very well! Pardon my emotion--may I wring
that hand?'

It is not my practice to shake hands with a photographer, but I was
touched and gratified by his boyish enthusiasm, and he seemed a
gentlemanly young fellow too, so I made an exception in his favour; and
he did wring my hand--hard.

'So you are Vitriol?' he repeated in a kind of daze, 'and you have
sought me out--_me_, of all people in the world--to have the honour of
taking your photograph!'

'That is so,' I said, 'but pardon me if I warn you that you must not
allow your head to be turned by what is, in truth, due to the merest
accident.'

'But what an accident!' he cried; 'after what I have learnt I really
could not think of making any charge for this privilege!'

That was a creditable and not unnatural impulse, and I did not check it.
'You shall take me as often as you please,' I said, 'and for nothing.'

'And may I,' he said, a little timidly--'would you give me permission to
exhibit the results?'

'If I followed my own inclinations,' I replied, 'I should answer
"certainly not." But perhaps I have no right to deprive you of the
advertisement, and still less to withhold my unworthy features from
public comment. I may, for private reasons,' I added, thinking of Iris,
'find it advisable to make some show of displeasure, but you need not
fear my taking any proceedings to restrain you.'

'We struggling photographers must be so careful,' he sighed. 'Suppose
the case of your lamented demise--it would be a protection if I had some
written authority under your hand to show your legal representatives.'

'_Actio personalis moritur cum persona_,' I replied; 'if my executors
brought an action, they would find themselves non-suited.' (I had
studied for the Bar at one period of my life.)

'Quite so,' he said, 'but they might drag me into court, nevertheless. I
should really prefer to be on the safe side.'

It did not seem unreason