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Excerpt from Reminiscences of the Impressionist Painters The publication of my lecture on the Impressionist Painters and their haunt, the cafe of the Nouvelle Athenes, carries my thoughts to you, and by a natural association of ideas; for was it not in the Cock Tavern in Fleet Street that Sickert introduced us one evening twenty years ago You were sitting in one of the compartments, the third on the left, eating your dinner. But I have for gotten whether Sickert took me to the Cock to meet you or whether we met you there by accident. My forgetfulness on this point will seem a matter of slight importance to those who have not chosen memory for their religion. Those who have will understand how re grettable is a broken link in the chain. It would seem a little fatuous for me to write asking you if you could supply the link, but even if you could the chain would not be the same; borrowed links never fit; if they did we should remember that they were borrowed. Some will think this subtle psychology, but many will agree with me that no man's memories can be replenished from another's. As I sit, pen in hand, my thoughts wander from you to Sickert, and his character suggests that we must have come there by appointment to meet you, for we know how anxious Sickert is that his friends should know each other and learn to love each other. A good soul, whose hospitality extends even to his friends! You were then a young painter, quite un suspected by the public which is interested in prices rather than in pictures. Your talent was just beginning to light up, for it was about that time you painted the pensive girl in the black hat - a barmaid was she not at the Earl's Court Exhibition - the girl whom I picked out as one appealing specially to me from the many canvases in your studio high up, at the top of five flights -of black stone stairs overlooking the Addison Road Station. You were poor at that time, so was I, unable to buy a picture however slight the price might be. But artists give each other their pictures, and you proposed to give me that one, and I took it away in its white Whistlerian frame (for that frame I think I insisted on paying you); and the picture hung for many years in my rooms in King's Bench Walk; it now hangs here, on my staircase, and you will be glad to learn, though I have often told you before now - but no one minds listening to tales told twice if they are pleasant ones - that during all these long years I have never once disparaged that picture either to my acquaintances - who have not always admired it - or to myself. And you know, my dear friend, how changing men's loves are. Some say that mine are always changing, but you and I know that that is not true. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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