* * * * *

"Why have you withered people and stung them all your life?" asked a
lady.

"My dear," he said, "I will tell you a secret. Early in life I made
the discovery that I was charming; and if one is delightful, one has
to thrust the world away to keep from being bored to death."

* * * * *

During the Boxer troubles, when Pekin was under siege to rescue the
legations, he remarked:

"Dear! dear! I hope they will save the palace. All the Englishmen in
the world are not worth one blue china vase."

One evening at Pennell's Miss Annulet Andrews mentioned attending the
Royal Society soirée the evening before.

"Poor thing!" he said. "Poor, misguided child! Did you come all the
way to London to consort with such--well, what shall we call them?
Why, there isn't a fellow among them who had his h's five years ago!"

* * * * *

"You should be grateful to me," said Whistler to Leyland, after he had
painted the Peacock Room in the latter's house. "I have made you
famous. My work will live when you are forgotten. Still, perchance in