MAITRE LABORI 



that time for it would all tell in the matter of my getting 

 a licence in France or any other country. Unfortun- 

 ately at that time I had no one to give me sound advice 

 or I might have taken a different course. Perhaps it 

 doesn't much matter now, but I had more anxiety at 

 the time than I care to remember. 



In a hot-headed way I rushed in to clear myself and 

 brought an action against the Societe d'Encourage- 

 ment and claimed damages. I managed to retain the 

 great pleader, Maitre Labori. One of the most charm- 

 ing men I ever met in my life, he spoke to me in English 

 all the time. He told me I might win but I should get 

 nothing, and the case was bound to do me harm. 

 But I determined to go ahead and the records will show 

 that I got the verdict but with no damages. The 

 Societe on the other hand had to pay all the costs. 

 When I went off to America some time afterwards they 

 appealed and I didn't know anything about it, but 

 Maitre Labori took up the case and won the appeal — 

 again with costs. Thus the warning off from that 

 enclosure didn't hold. 



The case cost me from start to finish about fifteen 

 thousand francs or six hundred pounds. The money 

 wanted a bit of finding at the time, and one morning 

 when it was absolutely necessary for me to put up 

 several thousand francs on account of costs I ran into 

 a well-known private bank in Paris with my available 

 jewellery, among which were seventeen tie pins, most of 

 them given me by owners. Among them was a large 

 pear-shaped pearl of perfect quality and colour pre- 

 sented to me by Mr " Solly " Joel. It must have cost 

 him at least five hundred pounds. The whole lot was 

 worth one hundred thousand francs. I asked the 

 bank to let me have ten thousand francs and I would 

 pay twelve thousand to get them back. Pawn- 



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