Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 4).djvu/60

 plush, are china cows and horses, deer, canaries, and even a rhinoceros. The pig predominates. Mr. Sala believes in pigs for luck, and purchases one wherever he goes. The two places of honour, however, are given up to a large-sized cat and monkey. Let it be told in a whisper that Mrs. Sala confesses to the cat as her guardian angel, because it is most like a woman; whilst Mr. Sala leans towards the monkey, because it most resembles a —. A grandfather's clock is ticking in the corner.

Here hangs a silver violin. It was made in Cawnpore, and was the property of some Rajah of India.

"I bought it in Leicester-square," said its owner. "It was marked £35. I went inside and offered a ten-pound note for it."

Oh!' exclaimed the proprietor, 'you're Mr. Sailor, you are! Well, look here, you can have it for £13.'

Right,' I said. 'Going to pay now?' he asked.

Yes.'

Then, take it out of the shop; for it's been hanging here for twenty-five years.

There are many fine engravings about, and just by the dining-room door is a stick given to Mr. Sala by Lord Wolseley, after his great campaign in South Africa.

The dining-room overlooks Victoria-street. It is a little room, suggestive of comfortable meals and excellent company. G. A. S.'s personal dining-table is not very big—one and a half feet square. He always uses it, seldom sitting at the larger board, and sits in an easy-chair. The bronzes on the mantelboard are as exquisite as the china and Hanoverian ware set out on the bookshelves, and it would be difficult to find more works of art crowded into so small a space. Examples of Sir John Gilbert, Montalba, Copley Fielding, A. Vandyck, Gerard Dhow, Gustave Doré—represented by a grand scene in the Highlands—the original sketch in oils for Luke Fildes "Betty," and a very clever painting by Miss Genevieve Ward, the actress, of a monk enjoying an after-dinner pipe.