No. 7 is called Arrangement in Black No. 3, apparently some pseudonym for
our greatest living actor, for out of black smudgy clouds comes looming
the gaunt figure of Mr. Henry Irving, with the yellow hair and pointed
beard, the ruff, short cloak, and tight hose in which he appeared as
Philip II. in Tennyson's play Queen Mary. One hand is thrust into his
breast, and his legs are stuck wide apart in a queer stiff position that
Mr. Irving often adopts preparatory to one of his long, wolflike strides
across the stage. The figure is life-size, and, though apparently one-
armed, is so ridiculously like the original that one cannot help almost
laughing when one sees it. And we may imagine that any one who had the
misfortune to be shut up at night in the Grosvenor Gallery would hear
this Arrangement in Black No. 3 murmuring in the well-known Lyceum
accents:

By St. James, I do protest,
Upon the faith and honour of a Spaniard,
I am vastly grieved to leave your Majesty.
Simon, is supper ready?

Nos. 8 and 9 are life-size portraits of two young ladies, evidently
caught in a black London fog; they look like sisters, but are not related
probably, as one is a Harmony in Amber and Black, the other only an
Arrangement in Brown.

Mr. Whistler, however, sends one really good picture to this exhibition,
a portrait of Mr. Carlyle, which is hung in the entrance hall; the
expression on the old man's face, the texture and colour of his grey
hair, and the general sympathetic treatment, show Mr. Whistler {19} to be
an artist of very great power when he likes.