notable company that he used to meet, all the
chief "rising stars" of _Punch_ being still upon the Staff, save Douglas
Jerrold, who had died three years before. There were Mark Lemon,
Thackeray (nominally retired), Tom Taylor, Horace Mayhew, Shirley
Brooks, Percival Leigh, John Leech, Henry Silver, and John Tenniel; and
into this brilliant assemblage, on the evening in question (when,
however, Thackeray was absent, and Sir Joseph Paxton was present as a
visitor), he was received with a cordial welcome. But neither at that
time nor thenceforward did he take a prominent part in the discussions
over the cartoon, although on one occasion he did astonish the company
with an excellent though belated suggestion. He had, in fact, no
originality of a literary or humorous kind. He knew the exact value of a
joke when it was made, and could usually display its point to
incomparable advantage; but joke-creation was not one of his strong
points, even though he was often forced to it by necessity.
Occasionally, however, he would miss a point entirely, as in the joke
sent him by Mr. Alfred Cooper[55]:--

"VISITOR (_having shot a hare at the usual seventy yards_): 'Long
shot that, Johnson.'

"KEEPER: 'Yes, sir; Master remarked as it were a wery long shot.'

"VISITOR (_gratified_): 'Ah! Oh, he noticed it, did he?'

"KEEPER: 'Yes, sir; Master always take notice. When gen'lemen makes
wery long shots, they don't get asked again!'"

"Why," asks Keene, "would 'Master' object to this long shot? Burnand ...
is sure to want to know I don't know either! Will you kindly explain, so
that I can answer him as if I were an expert." As if even a
non-sportsman would fail to see the point!

But at the Table, delightful as Keene personally was--he was lovingly
addressed as "Carlo"--he was not a leading conversationalist. He
proposed little; yet when his opinion was asked, he gave it, with
judgment and taste, tersely expressed. His work, besides, was rarely
discussed at the Table, for he usually had to seek his material outside.
Moreover, he was, as he expressed it, a "hot Tory," and so strongly
antipathetic did he profess himself towards the Liberal tendency of some
of the Staff of that day that he would declare with a wink that he
positively preferred to stay away; and on the occasion of the accession
of Mr. Anstey, wrote this sturdy Conservative "I hope he's a Tory. We
want some leaven to the set of sorry Rads that l