Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

and made me lie down for hours* This made me
worse.
I went to Margate with my Mother who I had
really never known before. I found her charming
and we got on very well. I read philosophy and
poetry; my Mother thought that I was overstrain-
ing my brain and suggested a little light literature.,
Ethel M. Dell, etc. I was horrified and continued
to read Kant, Schopenhauer, and Baudelaire. I got
slightly better and on my return got worse. My
Father had a friend who worked with Dr. Forbes
Winslow and went in for hypnotic suggestion. I
was taken there; he had a medium who went into
a trance, she held my hands and he said to her,
" She has nothing the matter with her whatever."
The medium then came out of her trance, let go
of my hands, and the doctor said, cc What you want
to do is some work, any kind, but occupy your
mind." From that moment I recovered.
A second cousin of mine was an opera singer; he
had sung at Co vent Garden. He had a fine baritone
voice but he was not strong and had to spend most
of his time touring the Colonies with Madame
Albani and singing " Land of Hope and Glory,"
which urged large crowds to a feeling of patriotism
bordering on frenzy. I never liked him; when I
was fifteen he would stare at me in a way that made
me embarrassed. He was at this time Thomas
Bccchain's manager and a play called Proud Maisie,
by Hemmerde, was running at the Aldwych
Theatre. I wrote to him asking him if he could get
me a job to walk on. I had finished with the Art
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