Thwaites selected a copy of each and then led the way to his bedroom, a
large room on the top floor, from which we could see across the bay the
brilliant lights of Monte Carlo.
He then explained to me that he had been selected to read to J. P.
whilst the latter had his breakfast and his after-breakfast cigar the
next morning. In order to do this satisfactorily he had to go over the
papers and read carefully whatever he could find that was suited to J.
P.'s taste at that particular time of the day. During the breakfast hour
J. P. would not have anything read to him which was of an exciting
nature. This preference excluded political news, crime, disaster, and
war correspondence, and left practically nothing but book reviews,
criticisms of plays, operas, and art exhibitions, and publishers'
announcements.
The principal sources of information on these topics were the literary
supplement of the London Times, the Literary Digest, and the literary,
dramatic, and musical columns of the Athenaeum, The Spectator, and the
Saturday Review.
These had to be "prepared," to use J. P.'s phrase, which meant that they
were read over rapidly once and then gone over again with some
concentration so that the more important articles could be marked for
actual reading, the other portions being dealt with conversationally,
everything being boiled down to its essence before it reached Mr.
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