"'DEAR SIR--Our attention has been called to the attack made upon you by Mr. du Maurier in the novel "Trilby," which appeared in our magazine. If we had had any knowledge of personal reference to yourself being intended, we should not have permitted the publication of such passages as could be offensive to you. As it is, we have freely made such reparation as is in our power. We have agreed to stop future sales of the March number of _Harper's Magazine_,[B] and we undertake that, when the story appears in the form of a book, the March number shall be so rewritten as to omit every mention of the offensive character, and that the illustration which represents the Idle Apprentice shall be excised, and that the portraits of Joe Sibley in the general scene shall be altered so as to give no clue to your identity. Moreover, we engage to print and insert in our magazine for the month of October this letter of apology addressed to you. Assuring you again of our sincere regret that you should have sustained the least annoyance in any publication of ours, we are, "'Yours respectfully, HARPER & BROTHERS. "'J. MCNEILL WHISTLER, ESQ.'" * * * * * One of the humors of the controversy was a letter that appeared in the first number of Harry Furniss's _Lika-Joko_. It was supposed to have been written by Whistler to express his indignation at having been cut out of the book. The English as well as the American papers fell into the trap, and discussed the letter as a genuine expression of Mr. Whistler's outraged feelings. It was only a joke, however--and is said to have been the only joke in Mr. Furniss's comic paper. To an interviewer for _The Westminster Budget_, Mr. Whistler expressed his surprise that anyone should have been taken in by the parody. "There was no harm in the appearance of the article," he said, "but what caused my merriment, though not surprise, is that anyone would have thought for a moment that I had written it. But then, it was in England, and in England anything is possible!" That the parody was a clever one will be seen from the following extract:--