When elected president of the Society of British Artists, Whistler naturally felt exultant. "Carr," he said, jokingly, to Conryns Carr, the dramatist, "you haven't congratulated me yet."
"No," was the retort. "I'm waiting till the correspondence begins!"
* * * * *
The Society did not possess a Royal Charter until Mr. Whistler became president. With some help from the Prince of Wales this was procured. When the Prince paid his first visit to the gallery, Whistler was there to welcome him.
"I'm sure," said the Prince at the door, "I never heard of this place,
Mr. Whistler, until you brought it to my notice. What is its history?"
"It has none, your Highness," was the neat rejoinder. "Its history dates from to-day!"
When Whistler left the White House, at Chelsea, he put this legend over the door:
"'Unless the Lord build the house, their labor is but vain that build it.' E.W. Godwin, P.S.A., built this one."
* * * * *
Justin McCarthy, the journalist and historian of Our Own Times, stayed away from the Whistler dinner at the Criterion because his friend Mortimer Menpes had been slighted. He met Whistler a few evenings later at a dinner to Christie Murray. As they came together Whistler remarked darkly: