“After the ceremony was over we adjourned to Whistler’s studio, where he had prepared a banquet. The banquet was on the table, but there were no chairs. So we sat on packing-cases. The happy pair, when I left, had not quite decided whether they would go that evening to Paris or remain in the studio. How unpractical they were was shown when I happened to meet the bride the day before the marriage in the street. ‘Don’t forget to-morrow,’ I said. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘I am just going to buy my trousseau.’ ‘A little late for that, is it not?’ I asked. ‘No,’ she answered, ‘for I am only going to buy a new tooth-brush and a new sponge, as one ought to have new ones when one marries.’ However, there never was a more successful marriage. They adored each other, and lived most happily together; and when she died he was broken-hearted.” [Illustration: WALTER CRANE’S MOST FAMOUS BOOK PLATE] One day I asked Walter Crane, who knew both Watts and Whistler more intimately than I did, whether he could tell me something of these two, so different from one another, and yet each of whom needs a prominent place—the one in the painter’s Valhalla; the other, well, let time decide in what niche and where Jimmy’s little statue shall command worship. Crane replied: “Watts was a most revered and generous friend of mine, I can truly say, but as to Whistler, I never saw much of him, but I always recognised his artistic qualities, though I was not of his school. I think he regarded me as necessarily in a hostile camp, artistically speaking, but it was not so. I can appreciate Impressionism without decrying pre-Raphaelitism. As regards Whistler and the Peacock Room, there was a panel at the end with two peacocks (one with a diamond eye and one with an emerald eye) fighting. Whistler is reported to have said that the one who is getting the worst of it was Leyland and the conqueror was himself. (Of course.) “We were not intimate friends—only acquainted. Although I always realised his distinction as an artist, I could not extend my admiration to the man, and I think he only cared for worshippers and even these he tired of.” One of my cherished possessions is the book-plate here shown which Walter Crane designed for me. He is probably the best _Ex Libris_ draughtsman of the day, and he himself thinks this is the best book-plate he ever drew. At his request it was reproduced on wood, and while it has delighted its possessor, it will surely be admired by all for its intrinsic merit. To explain the riddle of its symbolism.