538 ifcinas of tbe 1Rofc, TCtfle, an& (Bun 



Rabelais' easy-chair," but I have never forgotten the 

 absolute abandonment, the indescribable boyish glee 

 with which he let himself go and poured out story after 

 story, joke after joke, till his hearers "would echo helpless 

 laughter to his jest." Some idea of what his conversa- 

 tional powers were may be gathered from the following 

 vivid summary given by Mr. H. G. Graham, in his 

 admirable article on Russel in Eraser's Magazine : 



" Every great conversationalist has his limited store 

 of anecdotes which have seen an enormous deal of 

 dinner service. One naturally compassionates the wives 

 and offspring who have to listen to the same jokes with 

 the same air of perennial surprise. With Russel, on 

 the other hand, the effort was, not to evade, but to get 

 the anecdotes. ' Tell us that story again,' people would 

 ask, and certainly they never asked in vain ; and after 

 all what faint recollections remain of his talk, so vivid, 

 so bright, so intelligent, so ready, so witty only a 

 few anecdotes with the ludicrous touches gone, only a few 

 meagre jokes with the rich mellow flavour away. At 

 dinner topic after topic came and went ; a new book, 

 a new measure, politics, ecclesiastics, society, are 

 all discussed, brightened by some fresh thought, or 

 illustrated by some quaint story, each guest being 

 with kindly tact brought into the tide of talk, as 

 the host chatted and sipped his grog, he having 

 persuaded himself firmly that the doctors ordered him 

 to take whisky on the precarious ground that they 

 had ordered him not to take wine. One remembers 

 vaguely how the conversation went. He may be 

 speaking of the difficulty of conciliating those whom he 



