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WOMAN AND ARTIST

BY

MAX O'RELL

AUTHOR OF

"JOHN BULL AND CO." "JOHN BULL AND HIS ISLAND" "JONATHAN AND HIS CONTINENT" ETC.

LONDON

FREDERICK WARNE & CO. AND NEW YORK

[All Rights Reserved]

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME TO MY WIFE

CONTENTS PAGE

I. FRENCH AND ENGLISH HOMES 9

II. THE HOUSE IN ELM AVENUE 13

III. THE PORTRAIT 19

IV. DORA 38

V. THE DRAMATIC AUTHOR AND THE PATRON OF ARTS 60

VI. THE INVENTOR 83

VII. THE NEW HOUSE 94

VIII. THE HOUSE-WARMING 104

IX. THE CONFESSION 109

X. BELGRAVIA 125

XI. GENERAL SABAROFF 145

XII. THE HUSBAND, THE WIFE, AND THE OTHER 164

XIII. A CRUEL ORDEAL 177

XIV. EVA 209

XV. THE SEPARATION 217

XVI. PHILIP RETURNS TO THE FOLD 235

XVII. DORA'S STUDIO 246

XVIII. LORIMER'S PLOT 270

WOMAN AND ARTIST I

FRENCH AND ENGLISH HOMES

The English, whose knowledge of France consists in a fair acquaintance of that part of Paris lying between the Madeleine and the Faubourg Montmartre, affirm that family life is unknown on our side of the Channel, putting forward as proof the fact that the French language cannot boast of possessing the word home, that appeals so strongly to the British heart. Their conclusion is sublime: Since the French have no such word, they say, it is very evident that they have not the thing. As to the word itself, I am inclined to think they may be right; we have not, or rather we have no longer, a perfect equivalent for the English expression, as our pretty

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word foyer is only used in pretentious or poetical language. In ordinary conversation the Frenchman does not refer to his foyer. Il rentre a la maison, chez lui. M. Perrichon, alone, returns to his foyer. Our old French possessed an equivalent for the English word home. It was a substantive that is still with us, but we have it to-day in the form of a preposition--I mean the word chez, which is no other than the word case. The Frenchman of olden times said: "Je rentre en chez moi."

But enough of philology.