supplies. I am
not going to try and analyse this intimacy, and I make no
charge; but to my mind to pose as a thing is as bad as to be
it. With my own eyes I saw you both in the most loathsome
and disgusting relationship as expressed by your manner and
expression. Never in my experience have I ever seen such a
sight as that in your horrible features. No wonder people
are talking as they are. Also I now hear on good authority,
but this may be false, that his wife is petitioning to
divorce him for sodomy and other crimes. Is this true, or do
you not know of it? If I thought the actual thing was true,
and it became public property, I should be quite justified
in shooting him at sight. These Christian English cowards
and men, as they call themselves, want waking up.

Your disgusted so-called father,

QUEENSBERRY.

In reply to this letter Lord Alfred Douglas telegraphed:

"What a funny little man you are! ALFRED DOUGLAS."

This telegram was excellently calculated to drive Queensberry frantic
with rage. There was feminine cunning in its wound to vanity.

A little later Oscar told me that Queensberry accompanied by a friend
had called on him.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I said to him, 'I suppose, Lord Queensberry, you have come to
apologise for the libellous letter you wrote about me?'

"'No,' he replied, 'the letter was privileged; it was written to my
son.'

"'How dared you say such a thing about your son and me?'

"'You were both kicked out of The Savoy Hotel for disgusting conduct,'
he replied.

"'That's untrue,' I said, 'absolutely untrue.'

"'You were blackmailed too for a disgusting letter you wrote my son,'
he went on.

"'I don't know who has been telling you all these silly stories,' I
replied, 'but they are untrue and quite ridiculous.'

"He ended up by saying that if he caught me and his son together again
he would thrash me.

"'I don't know what the Queensberry rules are,' I retorted, 'but my
rule is to shoot at sight in case of personal violence,' and with
that I told him to leave my house."

"Of course he defied you?" I questioned.

"He was rude, Frank, and preposterous to the end."

As Oscar was telling me the story, it seemed to me as if another
person were speaking through his mouth. The idea of Oscar "standing
up" to Queensberry or "shooting at sight" was too absurd. Who was
inspiring him? Alfred Dougla