He went a little out of his way to take up historical romancing in his novel on the subject of the venomous Marguerite d'Aubray, Marchioness of Brinvilliers; and Douglas Jerrold went a good deal out of _his_ way to assail his "former crony" Albert's dabbling in "arsenicated literature." More congenial, certainly, to his powers of lively common-place were the stories of "Christopher Tadpole" and "The Scattergood Family." He had some dramatic faculty, which took now and then the proper dramatic form of theatric art; and, beside the stage-burlesques collaborated by him with Shirley Brooks, Charles Kenny, Stoqueler, and others, he wrote a few pieces, whereof one was suggested by the famous Chertsey bell, and a romantic legend in connection with that relic of Saxon days. Albert Smith's brother Arthur, a man of singular gentleness, was devoted to him, and spared no pains to please and serve him in a multitude of ways, little and great. The affection which existed between the two was never shaded by difference of any kind. Here is a little story which now sees, for the first time, the light of print:--When Albert Smith was giving his long-lived entertainment of "Mont Blanc," Arthur, his right-hand man in the business of management, took a holiday, and, visiting some glass-works in the north, was so struck with the resemblance of certain waste products to icicles, that he brought a number of specimens away with him, had them mounted like pendants, and, on his return to Piccadilly, hung them in triumph round the eaves of the little _chalet_ which formed a prominent part of the set scene. Albert, who would not have damped his brother's delight for all the world, was "charmed" with the effect, and thanked the good Arthur again and again. "I _can't_ tell him," said he, secretly, to the present writer, "that the flowering plants, the Alpine heaths, and all, are in full summer-bloom. It would break his heart to be reminded of the little contradiction in the seasons."