, therefore, as the little Irishman, and was in Paris at about
the same time. Whistler, "the Laird" and Du Maurier were both also
frequenting the Quartier, the latter collecting those impressions which
he afterwards recounted in "Trilby"--"Trilby" of which Lafcadio writes
later with the delight and appreciation of things experienced and felt.

In 1869 Lafcadio Hearn received a sum of money from those in Ireland who
had taken the control of his life into their hands, and he was directed
to leave Europe for Cincinnati in the United States of America. There he
was consigned to the care of Mr. Cullinane, Henry Molyneux's
brother-in-law.

It was characteristic that Hearn apparently did not attempt to
propitiate or approach his grand-aunt, Mrs. Brenane, though he must have
well known that by not doing so he forfeited all chance of any
inheritance she might still have left to bestow upon him.

CHAPTER VI
CINCINNATI

"... I think there was one mistake in the story of OEdipus
and the Sphinx. It was the sweeping statement about the
Sphinx's alternative. It isn't true that she devoured every
one who couldn't answer her riddles. Everybody meets the
Sphinx in life;--so I can speak from authority. She doesn't
kill people like me,--she only bites and scratches them; and
I've got the marks of her teeth in a number of places on my
soul. She meets me every few years and asks the same tiresome
question,--and I have latterly contented myself with simply
telling her, 'I don't know.'"[8]

[8] "The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn," Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

In a letter to his sister, written from Kumamoto, in Japan, years later,
Hearn tells her that he found his way to the office of an old English
printer, named Watkin, some months after his arrival in Cincinnati. "I
asked him to help me. He took a fancy to me, and said, 'You do not know
anything; but I will teach you. You can sleep in my office. I cannot pay
you, because you are of no use to me, except as a companion, but I can
feed you.' He made me a paper-bed (paper-shavings from the book-trimming
department); it was nice and warm. I did errand boy in the intervals of
tidying the papers, sweeping the floor of the shop, and sharing Mr.
Watkin's frugal meals."

In Henry Watkin's Reminiscences the purport is given of the conversation
that passed between the future