el
has secured its greatest results, and the best appreciation of his
_Punch_ work was written in the eighties by Mr. Henry James, the supreme
master in this field; the master of suspenses that are greater than the
conversations in which they happen; the explorer of twilights of
consciousness in which little passions contend.

The Society du Maurier depicted held its position upon more comfortable
terms than any preceding it in history. It did not have, on the one
hand, to trim to a court party, or, on the other, to concede anything to
the people to keep itself in power. Yet it was as swollen with pride in
its position as any society has ever been. The industrial phenomena of
the age had suddenly filled its pockets; and it had nothing else in the
world to do but to blow itself out with pride. But a Society holding its
position without an effort of some kind of its own is bound to lose in
character, and the confession of all the best literature of this time
was of the baffled search for the soul of the prosperous class.

Section 6

For the appreciation of the artist's management of dialogue we must move
for a page or two in Mrs. de Tomkyns' circle with Miss Lyon Hunter, Sir
Gorgius Midas the Plutocrat, Sir Pompey Bedel (of Bedel, Flunke & Co.)
the successful professional man, and the rest of the whole set, who
understand each other in the freemasonry of a common ambition to get
into another set.

_Mamma_. "Enfin, my love! We're well out of this! _What_ a gang!!!
Where shall we go next?"

_Daughter_. "To Lady Oscar Talbot's, Mamma."

_Mamma_. "She _snubs_ one so I really can't _bear_ it! Let us go to
Mrs. Ponsonby de Tomkyns. It's just as select (except the Host and
Hostess) and quite as amusing."

_Daughter_. "But Mrs. Tomkyns snubs one worse than Lady Oscar,
Mamma!"

_Mamma_. "Pooh, my love! who cares for the snubs of a Mrs. Ponsonby
de Tomkyns I should like to know, so long as she's clever enough to
get the right people."

This is the conversation in the hall between two ladies leaving a party
in one of du Maurier's most characteristic drawings. On every side there
are footmen and a crowd of guests cloaking and departing. Of Mrs.
Ponsonby de Tomkyns Mr. Henry James has said: "This lady is a real
creation.... She is not one of the heroines of the aesthetic movement,
though we may be sure she dabbles in that movement so far as it pays to
do so. Mrs. Pon