most to his taste--the treatment of life in the street and the open
country, in the shops and parlours of the lower middle class, and the
homes of the people.

And to me were allotted the social and domestic dramas, the nursery,
the school-room, the dining and drawing rooms, and croquet-lawns of
the more or less well-to-do.

I was particularly told not to try to be broadly funny, but to
undertake the light and graceful business, like a _jeune premier_. I
was, in short, to be the tenor, or rather the tenorino, of that little
company for which Mr. Punch beats time with his immortal baton, and to
warble in black and white such melodies as I could evolve from my
contemplations of the gentler aspect of English life, while Keene,
with his magnificent, highly trained basso, sang the comic songs.

We all became specialised, so to speak, and divided Leech's vast
domain among us.

We kicked a little at first, I remember, and whenever (to continue the
musical simile) I could get in a comic song, or what I thought one, or
some queer fantastic ditty about impossible birds and beasts and
fishes and what not, I did not let the opportunity slip; while Keene,
who had a very fine falsetto on the top of his chest register, would
now and then warble, pianissimo, some little ballad of the
drawing-room or nursery.

Illustration: FELINE AMENITIES

But gradually we settled into our respective grooves, and I have grown