l_, and were
afterwards published in the issue in two volumes. There is a picture at
the beginning of the second volume called "The Burning Gorse," in
which du Maurier makes an imaginative appeal through landscape almost
worthy of Keene.

[Illustration: Illustration for "The Story of a Feather" 1867.]

The artist is again at his best in the work of illustrating fiction in
the following year in Douglas Jerrold's _Story of a Feather_. It is the
same refinement of technique that is evident as in Mrs. Gaskell's tale.
One of du Maurier's greatest characteristics was charm. One is forced
into ringing changes upon the word in the description of his work. But
charm it is, more than ever, that characterises his illustrations to
_The Story of a Feather_. The initial letters in this book afford him a
succession of opportunities for displaying that inventive genius which
is evident wherever he turns to the province of pure fancy. It was not
for nothing apparently that he was the son of an inventor.

We have already spoken of his power in these days in the emotional use
of light and shade. It is perhaps even in this light book--in the
illustration reproduced opposite--that we have one of the best examples
of this power. But this book is all through a gold-mine of the work of
the real du Maurier.

Another work in which his art is to be found at this time is Shirley
Brooks's _Sooner or Later_ (1868). The novel does not seem treated with
quite the same reverence and enthusiasm which has characterised his work
in the books we have just described, but it is among the representative
examples of his illustration in the sixties. This story also passed as a
serial through _Cornhill_. In the same year, with E.H. Corbould, he
provides illustrations to _The Book of Drawing-room Plays_, &c., a
manual of indoor recreation by H. Dalton. It is not impossible that
these were prepared long in advance of publication, for they are in a
very much earlier manner than the illustrations we have been speaking
of. In them du Maurier has not yet emerged from the influence of
Leech--the first influence we encountered when a few years previously he
joined himself to the band of those who solicit the publishers for
illustrative work. From the point of view of our subject the book does
not repay much study. In 1876, in illustrations to _Hurlock Chase, or
Among the Sussex Ironworks_, by George E. Sargent, published by The
Religious Tract Society, we have some