t by being a little self-conscious about their signature.
But that period passes, and the autograph becomes set, to grow fragile
with old age and shrink, but not to alter in its real characteristics.
The signature at the foot of a picture presents a rather different
problem from the signature at the foot of a letter. It must necessarily
be a more deliberate and self-conscious affair, but it is no less
expressive. German deliberation was never so well expressed as in Albert
Durer's signature.

[Illustration: Caution

"Don't keep your Beer-Barrel in the same cellar as your _Dust-Bin!_"

_Punch_, February 23, 1867.]

Self-advertisers always give themselves away with their signature. As a
rule, the finer the artist the more natural his signature in style. And
fine artists like to subscribe to the great tradition of their craft,
that the work is everything, the workman only someone in the fair light
of its effect; the name is added out of pride but not vain-glory, with
that modest air with which a hero turns the conversation from himself.
Naturalness and mastery arrive at the same moment; students cannot sign
their works naturally. Du Maurier's signature passed through many
transformations, and there were times, too, when the artist was quite
undecided between the plentiful choice of his Christian names--George
Louis Palmella Busson. An artist beginning his career at the present day
with such a choice of names would most certainly have made use of the
"Palmella" in full--an advertisement asset. But advertisement _is_
vulgar. Du Maurier belonged to the Victorians, who were never vulgar.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _The Life and Letters of Charles Samuel Keene_, by Charles Somes
Layard. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1892.

III

DU MAURIER AS AUTHOR

Section 1

Queen Victoria was the Queen of Hearts; her reign was the reign of
sentiment. The redundancy of tender reference to Prince Albert at
Windsor has been known to bore visitors to the town. Life must have been
tiring in those days, tossed, as everyone was, if we believe the art of
the time, from one wave of sentiment to another. Men went "into the
city" to get a little rest, and there framed this code: that there
should be no sentiment in business.

So the Victorians put their sentiment into art, into stories and
illustrations. They put some of the best of their black-and-white art
into a Magazine called _Good Words_. Only the Victori