Safonoff, that grand artist so well known to London orchestras and audiences, used, in his lighter moments, to amuse us with his inimitable six-line caricatures on the back of menu cards, or on any handy scraps of paper. In these later years I used frequently to meet that grand violinist August Wilhelmj, and shall never forget the rather rare examples he gave us of his extraordinary gift of tone, in that respect reminding me somewhat of Laub. I used also to meet Auer on his occasional visits here, during which he introduced to me his celebrated pupils, Kathleen Parlow and Mischa Elman, who have since won world-wide fame. Ernest De Munck, the eminent Belgian {146} violoncellist, formerly married to Carlotta Patti, I knew very well during his last residence in Londen, and often heard him perform on his beautiful "Strad." He had made his reputation throughout the world, and after the death in Paris of his celebrated wife, he spent his last years in London. We had many mutual friends in the musical world of former days. The above are some of the _dii majori_ of the musical profession past and present. But there is also much excellent amateur talent in English Society, to which I have often listened with real enjoyment. On the other hand, I must confess that some of my best friends have shown a conspicuous absence of "music in the soul," though far from being on that account "fit for treason's stratagems and spoils!" I need hardly repeat my well-known story of dear Kinglake, who used to be unutterably bored by music, and frankly admitted that, of all instruments, he preferred the drum! His attitude was, I suppose, somewhat like that of your celebrated Dr. Johnson, whose attention was called at a musical party (at which no doubt he unwillingly found himself) to a _tour de force_ of an eminent performer on the violin. "Is it not wonderful?" said an ardent listener. "I wish, sir, it were impossible," replied the grim Doctor. {147} CHAPTER XI THE ARMENIAN QUESTION A Fatal Treaty--Gladstone's Opinion--The Concert of Europe--The Unspeakable Turk and His Methods--England's Responsibility--Mr. Gladstone's Energetic Action--Lord Rosebery Resigns--Gladstone's Astounding Letter--"I Shall Keep Myself to Myself"--"Abdul the Damned"--"A Man whose every Impulse is Good"--The Convention of Cyprus--Russia and England There is an old and cynical saying that no lawyer draws up an agreement or contract without an eye to the future. If ever a document left trouble for the future it was the Berlin Treaty. The clause referring to Armenia was tantamount to handing over the wretched Armenians to the Turks; for the Concert of Europe, that misbegotten child of the Treaty of Paris, has failed consistently in its futile endeavours.