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ever-increasing success. It is not too much to say that for many years
Punch was chiefly and mainly Du Maurier. He early marked out for
himself an entirely new path, which was not in the direction of
caricature or broad comedy; grace, sentiment, and wit, rather than
fun, were the characteristics of his work. He confined himself almost
entirely to society, so that his field was a narrower one than that of
some of his coadjutors. He had not, for instance, the masculine
breadth of Leech, who represented with great strength and humor the
chief characters of English life,--the parson, the soldier, the
merchant, the farmer, etc.

Du Maurier was almost entirely a carpet knight. He drew London
society, and a certain phase of London society. The particular society
which he represented is of very recent existence. Thirty years ago
there was but one society in London. This was simply the ancient
aristocratic society of England, which gathered in London in the
season. It is true that there was an artistic society in London at
that time, but it was quite apart and of little general recognition or
influence. But since then there has come up in London a society made
up chiefly of artists, professional people, and successful merchants
(having moreover its points of contact with the old society), which is
very strong and influential. It is this which Du Maurier knew, and
which he represented. Even here, however, the types he has selected
for description were very special. But they were presented with so
much grace and charm that the public never tired of them. To his type
of woman he was especially faithful: the tall woman with long throat
and well-defined chin, much resembling the figures of Burne-Jones and
Rossetti, only somewhat more mundane. We have the same woman in the
heroine of 'Trilby.'

Though Du Maurier, before beginning 'Peter Ibbetson,' had never
written a book, he had had considerable literary experience, for he is
said to have spent as much time upon the construction of the dialogues
which accompanied his pictures as upon the pictures themselves. The
story of 'Peter Ibbetson' he had often related to his friends, who had
urged him to write it down. This he finally did,--at the special
instance, it is said, of Henry James. It appeared in Harper's Magazine
in 1891. 'Trilby' was published in 1894 in Harper's Magazine, and at
once attained a great popular success. The publishers estimate that
about 250,000 copies of the b