st ordinary looking young man, quiet and respectable,
and so dazed that he scarcely heeded the cuff which the gentleman
managed to get in before we could drag our friend off--

It was about this time that he began to show occasionally the strangest
interest in questions of art--I mean, strange in him whom we had never
known interested in anything of the kind. I am told, however, that this
is not so very remarkable, since not a few cases have been observed of
men and women, after some shock or illness, developing hitherto
unsuspected aptitude for painting or poetry or music. But in such cases
the impulse lasts continuously for a year or two, and now and then for
life.

With Barber the crisis was just momentary, never lasting more than half
an hour, often much less. In the midst of his emphatic and pretentious
talk, he would break off suddenly, remain for a minute lost and
dreaming, and then, after spying at us suspiciously to see if we had
noticed anything strange, he would give an undecided laugh and repeat a
joke he had read in some comic paper.

His talk on these art subjects was without sense or connection, so far
as I could discover. Sometimes he spoke of painting, but when we put to
him the names of famous painters, he had never heard of them, and I
don't believe he had ever been in an art gallery in his life. More often
he spoke of theatrical matters. Coming back from a theatre, he would
sometimes fall to abusing the actors, and show the strongest jealousy,
pointing out how the parts should have been played, and claiming roundly
that he could have played them better. Of course, there were other
times--most times--when he was alike indifferent to plays and players,
or summed them up like the rest of us, as just "ripping" or "rotten." It
was only when the play had much excited him that he became critical, and
at such times none of us seemed willing to dispute with him, though we
hardly ever agreed with what he was saying.

Sometimes, too, he would talk of his travels, telling obvious lies, for
we all knew well enough that he had never been outside the home
counties, except once on a week-end trip to Boulogne-sur-mer. On one
occasion he put me to some confusion and annoyed me considerably before
a gentleman whom I had thoughtlessly brought him with me to visit. This
gentleman had long resided in Rome as agent for an English hosiery firm,
and he and his wife were kindly showing us some photographs, picture
post-ca