Rem in iscences . 199 



increased to such a degree that it was 

 almost impossible to carry on anything like 

 a connected conversation with him. Per- 

 haps, after three or four attempts to attract 

 his attention, a start would be effected, but, 

 long before the subject was threshed out, 

 his mind would have wandered to something 

 else, and he would be engaged in an audible 

 and animated discussion with himself on 

 some totally different topic. Never was 

 there a more indefatigable worker, and never 

 did a workman use worse tools. That there 

 should never, by any chance, have been a 

 decent pen on the premises, is no novelty 

 in the house of a literary man, but the entire 

 absence of writing paper was a little strange. 

 The blank sheet of a letter, the back of a 

 circular, even an old envelope turned inside 

 out, or any other scrap of paper that hap- 

 pened to be handy was promptly utilised, 

 and the finished copy of one of " The 

 Druid's " articles, or a chapter of one of his 

 books, presented a remarkable and unmis- 

 takable appearance. With so many irons 

 always in the fire, there could be no 

 regularity in his hours of work ; but he 



