Page:The illustrators of Montmartre.pdf/36



goes a button — "Palsembleu!" — 5 o'clock — hair done — now for my coat---I shall never do it! And so on, through all the terrors of hasty packing, ringings for the servant, getting, discussing and paying the hotel bill — umbrella left behind and recovered at the last moment — the dash into a crawling cab — and then Mr. Toutbeau is seen beaming in his first-class railway carriage.

Who does not know the Great Expectations set, wherein the expectant nephew, to his joy, is telegraphed for by his dying uncle; and how the latter miraculously gets stronger and plumper day by day, just as the erstwhile buoyant and vigorous nephew's growing disappointment drags him visibly nearer and nearer to an untimely grave.

Then there is the little set of three Shooting Impressions of my Friend Marius who presumably hails from the Midi. First he is in the North of France with his gun and his dog — nothing in sight, no game at all! Next he is in the Midlands, both man and dog are happier, There's just a little, and a bird has been bagged. Lastly, he's in his beloved and romantic Midi and there's too much; there's no room to walk for the game; they press round and caress the bloodthirsty Marius, a hare is making up to the dog, and one confiding game bird has brought its nest of young and actually settled with them on the gun barrel!

Another splendid set is that of The Finest Conquest of Man, wherein is traced the marvellous horseman-