if he so pleased, quite reasonably
accept the duties devolving upon him as a Reader, as among his
legitimate avocations.

Conspicuous among those who had shared in the getting up of the Jerrold
entertainments--including among them, as we have seen, the first of
his own Readings in London--the novelist had especially observed the
remarkable skill or aptitude, as a general organiser, manifested from
first to last by the Honorary Secretary, into whose hands, in point
of fact, had fallen the responsibility of the entire management. This
Honorary Secretary was no other than Albert Smith's brother Arthur--one
who was not only the right-hand, as it were, of the Ascender of Mont
Blanc, and of the Traveller in China, but who (behind the scenes, and
unknown to the public) was the veritable wire-puller, prompter,
Figaro, factotum of that _farceur_.among story-tellers, and of that
laughter-moving patterer among public entertainers. Arthur Smith, full
of resource, of contrivance, and of readiness, possessed in fact all the
qualifications essential to a rapid organiser. He was, of all men who
could possibly have been hit upon, precisely the very one to undertake
in regard to an elaborate enterprise, like that of a long series of
Readings in the metropolis, and of a comprehensive tour of Readings
in the provinces, the responsible duties of its commercial management.
Brought together accidentally at the time of the Jerrold testimonial,
the Honorary Secretary of the fund and the Author-reader of the "Carol"
came, as it seems now, quite naturally, to be afterwards intimately
associated with one another, more in connection with the scheme of
professional Readings, which reasonably grew up at last out of the
previous five years' Readings, of a purely complimentary character.

Altogether, as has been said on an earlier page, Charles Dickens cannot
have given less than some Five Hundred Readings. As a professional
Reader alone he gave considerably over Four Hundred. Beginning in the
spring of 1858, and ending in the spring of 1870, his career in that
capacity extended at intervals over a lapse of twelve years: those
twelve years embracing within them several distinct tours in England,
Ireland, and Scotland, and in the United States; and many either
entirely distinct or carefully interwoven series in London at St.
Martin's Hall, at the Hanover Square Rooms, and at St. James's Hall,
Piccadilly.

The first series in the metropolis, and the f