R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

Andrew Lang in the 'Seventies 91me: and needed no other excuse, if any at all had beenwanted, to go.This frequentation continued on the scale mentionedfrom nearly the middle of the 'seventies to not far fromthat of the 'eighties and on a somewhat reduced scale (Ihad given up contributing to one of the papers concerned)for another ten years, with all sorts of miscellaneous companionships.When I moved to Scotland in 1895 our meetingswere necessarily fewer and farther between: but Idon't think he often missed coming to see me in Edinburghon his annual way to St Andrews. Now I cannot say asRupert, Lord Derby, said on being sarcastically asked asto the qualities of a member of his cabinet that he ' hadheard no complaints'. At no time in his life I shouldthink, and at none of the greater part of that life whichI knew, was he universally popular. I have alwaysthought more or less, and since the complaints havemultiplied and become acrimonious I have thought stillmore, of two incidents, one in literature, and one in life,which bear upon the matter. The first is the case of theimmortal Scrub, who was sure that people in the companywere talking of him because they laughed consumedly.It was not Lang's habit to laugh consumedly: but hesometimes had an air of not being violently interested inthings and persons, which people who were not oversureof themselves might mistake. It is curious that in such acase it should not occur to anybody that perfect immunityfrom discomfort is provided by simply not troublingyourself whether the other person is interested in you ornot: but unfortunately it seldom does occur. The otherstory, which in fact had nothing to do personally withLang, is still perhaps illuminative. A thousand yearsago, or perhaps a little less, there happened in a countrydrawing-room, about afternoon calling-time, to be presenta sufficiently ordinary company—say, one married couple,