Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/172

 although he is now, as Literary Director, with a seat on the Board, ultimately responsible in a literary sense for all the publications issued by the House, the Penny Magazine has been one of his pets, and is watched over with an indefatigable keenness to keep it up to concert pitch all the time.

It was in 1887 that the late Oscar Wilde accepted the editorship of the Lady's World, a monthly magazine "of Fashion and Society," as it styled itself, which had been issued for a year under the direction of a departmental manager. In his first number, November, 1887, he changed the title to the Woman's World.

At first Oscar Wilde took his work quite seriously, and eleven o'clock every Tuesday and Thursday saw him entering the portals of the Yard; but after a few months his arrival became later and his departure earlier, until at times his visit was little more than a call. "After a very short time in my association with him," says Mr. Arthur Fish, who was his assistant, "I could tell by his footfalls along the resounding corridor whether the necessary work to be done would be met cheerfully or postponed to a more congenial period. In the latter case, he would sink with a sigh into his chair, carelessly glance at his letters, give a perfunctory look at proofs or makeup, ask, 'Is it necessary to settle anything to-day?' put on his hat with a sad 'Good morning,' and depart again.

"On his cheerful days, however, which were fairly constant in the spring, everything was different: there would be a smiling entrance, letters would be answered with epigrammatic brightness, there would be a cheery interval of talk when the work was accomplished, and the dull room would brighten under the influence of his magnetic personality."

As contributors to the Woman's World Wilde secured a brilliant company which included the leaders of feminine thought and activity. Literary quality so high and various had never before been attained by any such