nius for keeping tragedy at bay;
for enduring, for instance, such a dark cloud constantly threatening as
blindness without claiming pity. It is easy for such people to impart
charm in whatever art they practise. And it is not true, as modern
novelists and playwrights seem to imagine, that "depth" always implies
what is sinister, and that only the surface of life is charming. Let us
once again believe in fragrance in art. Summer is as great as winter.
Within a sweet-smelling blossom is the whole profound history of a tree
struggling to survive the vengeance of frost and gales. It is the
fragrant things of life that contain all that has been conserved through
unkind weather.

One of the chief influences in du Maurier's life was his admiration of
Thackeray. This revealed sympathy with greatness. Thackeray was one who
was greater in life than in his art, as are all the greatest artists. He
was great as a man of the world. In a short life his presence made
itself prevail everywhere in London. It requires, too, considerable
genius to live only in precisely the street and the house in London you
want to. This Thackeray managed to do; and to know only the people you
want to, as Thackeray did. This is real sovereignty.

There was a reserve about du Maurier in manner when he encountered
complete strangers. He retained the detached and distant manner with
slight acquaintances which his role of an observer in Society had taught
him. Like all those who have an exceptionally loyal friendship to give,
he could not pretend to give it to every person introduced to him. In
this he was, of course, no true Bohemian. In Bohemian circles it is the
fashion to make extravagant use of terms of endearment and to fall upon
the neck at first meetings, and men like du Maurier reserve the display
of affection for the home.

Art-critics and secretaries of Art Galleries, frame-makers and all those
whose business throws them into constant contact with living artists and
their art, know how exactly like their pictures artists always are,
their work being immediately expressive of their own fibre, coarse or
refined. Du Maurier's art reveals a marked preference for certain kinds
of people. In life too he was selective; knowing well whom he liked, and
in whom he wished to inspire regard.

The artist's family was of the small nobility of France. The name
Palmella was given him in remembrance of the great friendship between
his father's sister and the Du