lighted in meeting such folk as bartenders and
all the simpler people whom he saw too seldom. This suggested an
idea--would he come out to a school across the bay which could not
afford his fees, because it educated the daughters of poorer
Catholics. He agreed at once and not only talked to them brilliantly
for three quarters of an hour, but also wrote for the children about
50 autographs.

But of course, he had forgotten something--an engagement to attend a
big social function. A huge car arrived at the school complete with
chauffeur and several agitated ladies. "Mr. Chesterton, you have
broken an important engagement." "I have filled an important
engagement," he answered, "lecturing to the daughters of the poor."

If it were possible for Gilbert to be better loved anywhere than in
England that anywhere was certainly America. From coast to coast I
have met his devotees. I have come across only one expression of the
opposite feeling--and that from a man who seems (from his opening
sentence) to have been unable to stay away from the lectures he so
detested:

I heard Chesterton some six or seven times in this country. His
physical make-up repelled me. He looked like a big eater and
animalism is repugnant to most of us. His appearance was against him.

Not one of his lectures seemed to me worth the price of admission
and some of them were so bad that they seemed contemptuous morsels
flung at audiences for whom he adjudged anything good enough.

One of his lectures, at the Academy Brooklyn, was a great
disappointment. And he charged $1,000 for it. It was not worth $10
and Chesterton knew it. After the lecture, he remarked to a friend of
mine, "I think that was the worst lecture I ever gave." He may have
been right. Certainly it was the worst I ever heard him give. But he
took the thousand and a bonus of $200 for the extra large crowd in
attendance. No: I did not like Chesterton.

What of the money? With his American agent Chesterton had a quite
usual arrangement: he received half the fees paid. The agent made
engagements, paid travelling expenses and received for this the other
half. Out of the half Chesterton received, he paid a further ten per
cent to the London agent who had introduced him to the American
agent; he also had to pay the expenses of his wife and his secretary
and further gave a large present to his secretary for her trouble on
the tour: the rest went chiefly int