ge in his habit of thinking before
speaking. He was to decide where he would take up his quarters on his
visit to New York; that was a burning question, warmly discussed in the
press. Why, I don't quite recollect, but anyway his decision was eagerly
awaited by two contending groups of his followers. His Secretary had
handed him a telegram, and was waiting for instructions what to answer.
I thought it proper to be unmistakably minding my own business, and
became deeply interested in the background of my picture. But I could
not help hearing Cleveland's answer:--

"Say the governor has not decided; he seems inclined to select his own
hotel." This in a drowsy undertone. Then, turning to me with a sudden
outburst of energy he said:--

"They'll have to find it out sooner or later, and the sooner they find
it out the better, that I'm not a figure-head to be put in front of a
tobacconist's store."

After the second sitting my portrait was finished, and my kind model
asked me to stop and take luncheon with him. I accepted with pleasure,
and this little _tete-a-tete_ with Cleveland is one of my pleasantest
transatlantic recollections. Democratic simplicity ruled supreme. We
shared four cutlets and a dish of potatoes, and wound up with some
stewed fruit; with that we drank our bumpers of ice water in true
American fashion. It was quite a relief to get from Lucullus to
Cincinnatus. I had had ample opportunity of appreciating American
hospitality, feted and "received" as I had been by my new friends, but
now, it was really refreshing to sit down for once in a way to a meal
without having constantly to say "No, thank you," to the bearers of dish
or bottle, and without being uncomfortably reminded that you were
feasting whilst others were starving within easy reach perhaps of your
table, laden with all the luxuries that wealth commands.

The servant disappeared, we helped ourselves, and in answer to a
question of mine, Cleveland chatted freely about himself and his
antecedents.

"I really do not know how it has all come about," he said. "I began in
the smallest of ways as clerk in a store; then I got into a law office"
(I think he said at four dollars a week), "and one thing leading up to
another, I set up as a lawyer myself. For a while I was Mayor of
Buffalo, and then an unexpected opportunity sent me as Governor to
Albany. I can hardly tell you why I am President; I was not anxious to
be Governor, and not ambitious to be Pre