He was a most charming travelling companion and an ideal team-mate for the purpose we had in mind. I would not have thought of going “on tour” if I had not met Kilmer. My idea was never to “go on tour” but, after I had met Kilmer, to “go on tour with Kilmer.” He was altogether lovable and loved. It would be a decidedly false estimate of Kilmer which failed to note, even with some emphasis, that he was an excellent man of business. He “played the game,” in the exceedingly difficult job of earning a thoroughly competent living at the literary profession, with a dexterity which, it was frequently apparent, was at once an inspiration and a despair to those who sought to rival him. The Kilmer cult which grew apace was considerably accelerated by a rich Kilmerian strategy. And he delivered to the little world of intensely intense literary societies and blue-nosed salons which hung upon his lips the pure milk of the word with a strongly humorous consciousness of the feat as a part of the immense sport of living. Kilmer’s “act” as it was observed from behind the scenes is excellently presented by an associate in the office of the _New York Times_. This writer says in the _Philadelphia Press_: Our editor analysed him into three distinct manners: Kilmer, the literary man; Kilmer, the lecturer; and Kilmer, himself. His first appearance in the office would give you the cue to him for the day. If he came in grinning with his pipe drawing well, we would know that nothing was to be feared; he was himself. When he got his “literary” manner on, the symptom was a tapping of his eyeglass, with his right hand on the fingers of his left. When he appeared in his cutaway coat and a particularly pastoral necktie, we knew that on that day the elderly ladies of This Literary Club or the young ladies of That Academy were to be treated to a discourse on certain aspects of Victorian verse. One day he came in, obviously decked out for a lecture. Without his having said a word about it, the assistant Sunday editor spoke up: “Let’s cut out work this afternoon and hear Kilmer lecture.” A look of horror overspread his face. “For heaven’s sake, don’t,” he said. “I couldn’t go through with it.” I don’t believe any of us ever did hear him.