The enduring feature of du Maurier's art, that which survives in it
better than its sometimes scathing commentary upon a passing "craze," is
his close representation of the air with which people seek to foil each
other in conversation and conceal their own trepidations. His "Social
Agonies" are among the best of this series. If he does not lay stress
upon individual character, he still remains the master draughtsman of a
state of mind. He succeeds thus in the very field where probably all
that is most important in modern art, whether of the novel or of
illustration, will be found.

Behind the economy of word and gesture in the conversational method of
to-day there lies the history of the long struggle of the race through
volubility to refinement of expression. Du Maurier's _Punch_ pictures
take their place in the field of psychology in which the modern novel
has secured its greatest results, and the best appreciation of his
_Punch_ work was written in the eighties by Mr. Henry James, the supreme
master in this field; the master of suspenses that are greater than the
conversations in which they happen; the explorer of twilights of
consciousness in which little passions contend.

The Society du Maurier depicted held its position upon more comfortable
terms than any preceding it in history. It did not have, on the one
hand, to trim to a court party, or, on the other, to concede anything to
the people to keep itself in power. Yet it was as swollen with pride in
its position as any society has ever been. The industrial phenomena of
the age had suddenly filled its pockets; and it had nothing else in the
world to do but to blow itself out with pride. But a Society holding its
position without an effort of some kind of its own is bound to lose in
character, and the confession of all the best literature of this time