e paper by a year or two. He has very
kindly sent the writer the following impression of the artist: "That he
was beloved as a cheery, witty _confrere_, goes without saying. Rarely
did he mix himself up with politics in any shape or form. I doubt if he
ever gave us any assistance in devising a political cartoon. What his
politics were I am unable to say, and I do not think he troubled himself
about the matter. In 'the old days' he delighted in chaffing Horace
Mayhew, with whom he exchanged 'slang' in French. With the jovial
proprietor, William Bradbury, he was always on the best of terms of
friendly nonsense, being invariably his left-hand neighbour at 'The
Table.' He was a genuine Bohemian of the artistic fraternity (as given
in his _Trilby_) with the true polish of an English gentleman, of the
kindest disposition, and of the warmest heart. All who knew him well
loved him, and none missed him more than his fellow-workers on _Punch_."

"His religion," Sir Francis volunteered in a further note, "as that of
the majority of his French _confreres_, you will find it in the artistic
sketches of the men and women in _La Boheme_" "His guardian angel,
humanly and socially, was his wife."

Everyone who knew du Maurier now speaks of his attractiveness and the
simplicity and honesty of his nature. He was not really very fond of
"Society" because of its code of insincerity. He was its satirist for
the same reason that, much as he liked "to be with people," he was not
at-home where manners were affected. The Victorians who survive to this
day hold up their hands in horror at present-day manners; they object to
our natural, comfortable ways and clothes; they define our naturalness
as laziness. But just because it is so constitutional to be lazy, the
casual modern manners, so true to the exact shade of our enthusiasm for,
or indifference to any particular person or thing, express our virtue.
We are too honest to pretend. We look back with amusement to the
Victorians, who put all their goods in the shop window, whose very
movements were so far without freedom as to be subservient to the
maintenance of uncreased clothing. A regard for "appearances" seemed to
regulate action. It was an age of _poseurs_--the age of the
"professional air." In that age came into use among doctors "the bedside
manner." Shop-walkers then distinguished themselves from the rest of the
race by their preposterous antics, artists endured the misery of velvet
jacke