s never actually stated straight out that the Premier had changed
places with the Radical working man, so that the door might be left open
for satirically suggested alternative explanations of the metamorphosis
in their characters; and as, moreover, the two men re-assumed their
original _roles_ for one night only with infinitely complex effects,
many readers, otherwise unimpeachable, reached the end without any
suspicion of the actual plot--and yet (on their own confession) enjoyed
the book!

[Illustration: "HAD IT SENT ROUND."]

In contrast to all this elephantine waggery the half-a-dozen chapters
near the commencement, in which my collaborator sketched the first
adventures of the Radical working man in Downing Street, were light and
sparkling, and I feel sure the shilling skit he originally meditated
would have been a great success. We christened the book _The Premier and
the Painter_, ourselves J. Freeman Bell, had it type-written, and sent
it round to the publishers in two enormous quarto volumes. I had been
working at it for more than a year every evening after the hellish
torture of the day's teaching, and all day every holiday, but now I had
a good rest while it was playing its boomerang prank of returning to me
once a month. The only gleam of hope came from Bentleys, who wrote to
say that they could not make up their minds to reject it; but they
prevailed upon themselves to part with it at last, though not without
asking to see Mr. Bell's next book. At last it was accepted by Spencer
Blackett, and, though it had been refused by all the best houses, it
failed. Failed in a material sense, that is; for there was plenty of
praise in the papers, though at too long intervals to do us any good.
The _Athenaeum_ has never spoken so well of anything I have done since.
The late James Runciman (I learnt after his death that it was he) raved
about it in various uninfluential organs. It even called forth a leader
in the _Family Herald (!)_, and there are odd people here and there, who
know the secret of J. Freeman Bell, who declare that I. Zangwill will
never do anything so good. There was some sort of a cheap edition, but
it did not sell much, and when, some years ago, Spencer Blackett went
out of business, I acquired the copyright and the remainder copies,
which are still lying about somewhere. And not only did _The Premier and
the Painter_ fail with the great public, it did not even help either of
us one step up the ladde