ts, when seen as it were by lightning,
his true self. Half his opinions were the contrivance of a
sub-consciousness that sought always to bring life to the dramatic crisis
and expression to that point of artifice where the true self could find
its tongue. Without opponents there had been no drama, and in his youth
Ruskinism and Pre-Raphaelitism, for he was of my father's generation, were
the only possible opponents. How could one resent his prejudice when, that
he himself might play a worthy part, he must find beyond the common rout,
whom he derided and flouted daily, opponents he could imagine moulded like
himself? Once he said to me in the height of his imperial propaganda,
"Tell those young men in Ireland that this great thing must go on. They
say Ireland is not fit for self-government, but that is nonsense. It is as
fit as any other European country, but we cannot grant it." And then he
spoke of his desire to found and edit a Dublin newspaper. It would have
expounded the Gaelic propaganda then beginning, though Dr Hyde had, as
yet, no league, our old stories, our modern literature--everything that
did not demand any shred or patch of government. He dreamed of a tyranny,
but it was that of Cosimo de' Medici.

VII

We gathered on Sunday evenings in two rooms, with folding doors between,
and hung, I think, with photographs from Dutch masters, and in one room
there was always, I think, a table with cold meat. I can recall but one
elderly man--Dunn his name was--rather silent and full of good sense, an
old friend of Henley's. We were young men, none as yet established in his
own, or in the world's opinion, and Henley was our leader and our
confidant. One evening, I found him alone amused and exasperated: "Young
A----," he cried "has just been round to ask my advice. Would I think it a
wise thing if he bolted with Mrs B----? 'Have you quite determined to do
it?' I asked him. 'Quite.' 'Well,' I said, 'in that case I refuse to give
you any advice.'" Mrs B---- was a beautiful talented woman, who, as the
Welsh Triad said of Guinievere, "was much given to being carried off." I
think we listened to him, and often obeyed him, partly because he was
quite plainly not upon the side of our parents. We might have a different
ground of quarrel, but the result seemed more important than the ground,
and his confident manner and speech made us believe, perhaps for the first
time, in victory. And besides, if he did denounce, and in my c