Laughing Torso

LAU GHING TORSO

wards and he was always very kind to me in his
criticisms.
||Some months before in a paper called Rhythm,
which I took in, I saw some drawings that interested
me very much. They were by a young man called
Henri Gaudier Brzeska. Downstairs there were
statues by him, one was of a wrestler, and four
others. I used to visit the show several times a week
and when I was tired of walking round I sat down
on a chair in the midst of his statues. One day a
young man, looking like a foreigner with a little
beard, looked at me in an amused kind of way. I
thought that this was probably the sculptor, but was
too shy to tell him how much I liked his works. He
walked away and afterwards I went upstairs and to
my delight found him standing in front of my
pictures. One day an elderly woman whom I knew
asked me if I knew a sculptor who could give her
lessons at five shillings a time. I knew the book-
seller, Dan Rider, who lived near Charing Cross
Road. He was a fat little man who roared with
laughter the whole time. He knew Frank Harris
very well. He also knew Gaudier Brzeska. I went
to see him and I said, cc Is Brzeska rich? " and he
said, " He is very poor "; so I said, " There is a
lady who would like lessons in sculpture." This was
in 1913, when five shillings meant more than it does
now. It was not very good payment but I wanted
to meet him. Dan Rider arranged a meeting at his
book shop. I turned up and was introduced to him.
I said, " Come back to my place and we will talk
about the lessons in sculpture." We walked up
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