.

      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

       1

       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.