to make money out of me, and had specially
instructed his counsel not to ask for damages! As a matter of fact, when
our mutual friends implored Sala not to proceed with such a trivial and
ridiculous action, he admitted that he wanted money, and in conversation
with Sir George Lewis--who all through acted as my good friend, and
Sala's too, doing all in his power (which is great) to induce Sala to
accept my necessary _amende_,--Sala declined. He had already pocketed
several amounts from papers publishing the Nottingham paper's fanciful
report, and said to Sir George: "When Friswell libelled me, I got L500
damages; and why should I not be equally successful against Furniss?"
"Yes," said the astute Sir George, "but you must remember that I got you
that L500, and now I am on the other side."

[Illustration]

What I really said, and what I was reported to have said, here I plainly
show are two very different things. Still, in the words "and now he is
Art Critic of the _Daily Telegraph_" there was a germ of libel--slander
one must call it, as the words were spoken--so I was advised to
withdraw. Sala, however, made this an impossibility, and the silly
action, fanned into "almost European importance," to quote Lockwood, was
to be. To make matters worse, just before the

GREAT SIX TOES TRIAL

I received a note from du Maurier:

"I am awfully sorry, old chap, but the capital story I told you of
Sala and the six toes was about another fellow after all!"

Although a letter from me was published immediately correcting this
ridiculous blunder on the part of the reporters, pointing out that what
I did say was that Mr. Sala was not the only literary man who began life
as an artist; and that I had quoted casually as an instance that
_Thackeray_ in early life went to Dickens, my correction--though well
known to Sala--was, to my surprise, ignored, and the words _I had never
used_ were made the point of the whole action!

[Illustration: COUNSEL FOR THE PLAINTIFF.]

Mr. Kemp, counsel for Sala, rolled them out with unctuousness then
paused for the Judge to write them down. Mr. Sala, in the witness-box,
in melodramatic style denied that he had ever taken sketches to Dickens,
and the jury noted that fact. Yet I had never said he did! and
furthermore Sala knew I had referred to Thackeray and not to him. Still,
for some reason I could never understand, Lockwood allowed this to pass,
and cross-examined Sala, admitting that he h