's father. I think
it would be quite as good a scene for illustration as any, and will, I
trust, be ready in a day or two. Is it worth Mr. B.'s while to see if
R.C. would do it in shades of brown or grey? (a very chiaroscuro scene
in a tumble-down cottage, light from above). All _I_ must have is a
good illustration or none at all. (I would send copy of scene to R.C.
and ask him.) I think it might pay, because I am certain to want to
_re_publish it, and whoever I publish it with will pay half-price for
the old illustration. I do myself believe that it might be
_colour-printed_ in (say seven instead of seventeen) shades of colour
(blues, and browns, and black, and yellow, and white) at much less
cost than a full-coloured one, but that I leave to Mr. B.: only I have
some strong theories about it, and when I come to town I mean to make
Edmund Evans's acquaintance.

Strange to say, I believe I _could_ make the tale illustrate the
"Portrait of a Sergeant" if it were possible to get permission to have
a thing photoed and reduced from _that_!!!--Goupil would be the
channel in which to inquire--but the artist would not be a leading
character, as far as I can see, so it might not be all one could wish.
But it is worth investigating....

Or again, I wonder what Herkomer would charge for an _etching_ of the
dying old Woodcutter, and his kneeling son? I believe THAT
would be the thing!--But the plate must be surfaced so that _A.J.M._
mayn't exhaust all the good impressions. If Herkomer would etch that,
and add a vignette of a scene I could give him with a beautiful
peasant girl--or of the old sergeant and the portly and worldly
"Madame," we SHOULD "do lovely!" Will you try for that,
please?

No more today for

"I am exhaust
I can not!"

Your devoted, J.H.E.

Remember _I_ wish for Herkomer. He will be the right man in the right
place. R.C. is for dear old England, and this is French and Roman
Catholic--and Keltic peasant life.

TO A.E.

January 4, 1883,

* * * * *

Caldecott says his difficulty over my writing is that "the force and
finish" of it frightens him. It is painted already and does not need
illustration; and he has lingered over "Jackanapes" from the
conviction that he could "never satisfy me"!! This difficulty is, I
hope, now vanquished. He is hard at work on a full and complete
edition of "Jackanapes," of which he has now begged to take the entire
control, wil