Mortal Coils

ght that he was dining, alone and intimately, with Lord Badgery. It was a definite event in his life, a step forward, he felt, towards that final success, social, material

castle, surrounded by a triple moat, only sallying forth to cultivate their property and to collect their rents. In the eighteenth century, when life had become relatively secure, the Badgerys began to venture forth into civilised society. From boorish squires they blossomed into grands seigneurs, patrons of the arts, virtuosi. Their property was large, they were rich; and with the growth of industrialism their riches also grew. Villages on their estate turned into manufacturing towns, unsuspected coal was discovered beneath the surface of their barren moorlands. By the mid

m art critic of his paper. Gollamy liked to have young and teachable people about him. The possession of disciples flattered his vanity, and he found it easier, moreover, to run his paper with docile collaborators than with men grown obstinate and case-hard

rt, had turned a wandering eye about the room and asked him abruptly whether he liked parrots. He had flushed and glanced suspiciously towards him, fancying that the man was trying to be offensive. But no; Badgery's white, fleshy, Hanoverian face wore an expression of perfect good faith. There was no malice in his small greenish eyes. He evidently did genuinely want to know if Spode liked parrots. The young man swallowed his irritation and replied that he did. Bad

he said, rising to his feet as he spok

drunk just ever so little too much. He would have to be careful, t

My ancestors would have their portraits painted by Romney. Such a shocking artist, don't you think? Why couldn't they have chosen Gainsborough, or even Reynolds? I've had

g man replied, with

if it isn't ancient Hittite, I don't know what it is. And that reminds me of that story about Lord George Sanger, the Circus King...." and, without giving Spode tim

r. He was in an itch to let out his information about Deburau. Badgery had given him a p

uly receding into distance according to all the laws of perspective. "I dare say you've heard of my poor father," Lord Badgery continued. "A little insane, you know; sort of mechanical genius with a screw loose. He used to have a toy railway in this room. No end of

air. "How splendid the onrush of those trees and leaning figures is! And the way they re caught up, as it we

as standing in front of a little fif

Rheims," he

n forty seconds before any work of art. Spode would have liked to spend a few moments of rec

le room leading out of it. At the sight o

exclaimed. "Un de ces salons dorés où

ined. "The best thing of its kind, I flatter m

the room was crowded. There were paintings on the walls-a Martin, a Wilkie, an early Landseer, several Ettys, a big Haydon, a slight pretty water-colour of a girl by Wainewright, the pupil of Blake and arsenic poisoner, a score of others. But the picture which arrested Spode's attentio

enchanting picture

my Troilus." Lord

d there's an energy about it that reminds one of Haydon. Only Haydon could never have do

pupil, Tillotson. I wish I could get hold of more of his work. But nobod

the younger man

orted his round, floridly curved face. No ... yes, I have it. He looked up triumphantl

s picture was painte

s masterpiece when he was twenty-six, and it's 1913 now; tha

ard of since 1860," L

eing caught napping if one of these t old birds chooses to shuffle off suddenly.) Well, there, among them-I remember my astonishment at the time-there I found Walter Tillotson's biography. Pretty full to 1860, and then a blank, except fo

ll commission him to paint frescoes round this room. It's just what I've always vainly longed for a

p and down in a state

r Fanny Kemble as Belvidera in 'Venice Preserved' anything like that, provided it's in the grand manner of the 'thirties and 'forties. And here I'd have a landscape with lovely receding perspectives, or else some

lence, from which he final

reature. And don't breathe a word to anybody. Tillotson shall be our

ly animated. He had talked of a single