Arthur Symons has told us of his mission and of his finding Beardsley lying on a couch--“horribly white, I wondered if I had come too late.” Beardsley was supposed to be dying. But the idea of this rival to _The Yellow Book_ which had at once begun to feel the cold draught of the fickle public’s neglect on the departure of Beardsley, appealed hugely to the afflicted man, and he was soon eagerly planning the scheme for its construction with Arthur Symons. No more ideal partner for Beardsley in the new venture could have been found than Arthur Symons. A thoroughly loyal man, a man of fine fibre in letters, he had far more than the ordinary cultured literary man’s feeling for pictorial art. The two men had also a common bond in their contempt of Mrs. Grundy and in their keen interest in the erotic emotions--Arthur Symons had not hesitated to besmirch the sweet name of Juliet by writing of a “Juliet of a Night.” Beardsley there and then suggested the happy name of _The Savoy_ for the magazine; and he quickly won over Symons to the idea, so vital to Beardsley’s work, of making the page a quarto size in order to enable his work to be produced on a larger scale. [Illustration: FRONTISPIECE FOR “VENUS AND TANNHÄUSER”] The scheme brought back energy and enthusiasm to Beardsley, and he was soon feverishly at work to surpass all his former achievement. What was perhaps of far more value to Beardsley in the pursuit of his art, even than the new outlet to a large public, was the offer of his publisher, Smithers, to finance Beardsley in return for all work whatsoever from his hands becoming thenceforth the sole copyright of Smithers. This exclusive contract with Smithers we are about to see working to Beardsley’s great advantage and peace of mind. It made him a free man.