William Dean Howells 



markable for having at it, in the heart 

 of London, only one Englishman, and 

 he by birth a foreigner. The rest of 

 us were Americans, and King surely 

 the most American of all in a certain 

 fine expansiveness of good fellow- 

 ship. He had been in Spain, and 

 Southern Europe generally, and had 

 come up by way of Paris, where he 

 had stopped and bought pictures — 

 several Fortuny watercolors among 

 others. " Ah," I said, hearing his 

 joyous brags of their beauty, ''what 

 a fortunate man, to own Fortunys ! " 

 " Why, I will give you one," he re- 

 turned ; and I thought that a good 

 bluff, and he let me laugh. But the 

 next morning the Fortuny showed 

 itself at my lodgings, and that is how 

 I am still able to say to people, 

 " Have you seen my Fortuny ? Of 

 course, I don't buy Fortunys ; Clarence 

 King gave it me," and then tell when 

 and how, 



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