ing which should interest all brain
laborers. At a moderately early hour in the morning he seats himself in
his consulting-room to receive patients, and he remains indoors until
two in the afternoon. Then he drives out and walks. On certain days he
has medical lectures to deliver. His spare time in the afternoon is
devoted to taking the air, reading, or diverting himself. After dinner
and any social recreation that may be in hand he sits down at his desk
again by ten or eleven o'clock, and writes until two in the morning. 'I
do it,' he says, 'because I like it. It amuses and refreshes me.' How he
manages to endure this constant sitting up is something of a marvel,
considering that so much of his energies must be consumed by
professional work. He seems to be always at leisure and unharassed, and
lives comfortably, not denying himself a reasonable portion of
stimulants and tobacco."

IX.

Literary Partnership.

Literary partnerships are common in France, but in England they are
confined almost exclusively to dramatists. The one well-known exception
was that of Messrs. Besant and Rice. Mr. Rice's partnership with Mr.
Besant began in 1871, and ended with the death of Mr. Rice. "It arose,"
explains Mr. Besant, "out of some slight articles which I contributed to
his magazine, and began with the novel called 'Ready-Money Mortiboy.' Of
this eleven years' fellowship and intimate, almost daily, intercourse, I
can say only that it was carried on throughout without a single shadow
of dispute or difference. James Rice was eminently a large-minded man,
and things which might have proved great rocks of offence to some, he
knew how to treat as the trifles they generally are."

In France, the best example of literary partnership is found in that of
M. Erckmann and M. Chatrian. How these men worked in concert has been
described by the author of "Men of the Third Republic." "M. Chatrian is
credited with being the more imaginative of the two. The first outlines
of the plots are generally his, as also the love scenes, and all the
descriptions of Phalsbourg and the country around. M. Erckmann puts in
the political reflections, furnishes the soldier types, and elaborates
those plain speeches which fit so quaintly, but well, into the mouths of
his honest peasants, sergeants, watchmakers, and schoolmasters. A clever
critic remarked that Erckmann-Chatrian's characters are always hungry
and eating. The blame, if any, must lie on M. Ch