and Reynolds" (the friend to
whom he confided them), "knowing the story, respected his feelings after
his death."]

What is there in the poet's human lot
Most beastly loathsome? Haply you will say
An influenza in the prime of May?
Or haply, nosed in some suburban plot,
The reek of putrid cabbage when it's hot?
Or, with the game all square and one to play,
To be defeated by a stymie? Nay,
I know of something worse--I'll tell you what.
It is to have your rotten childish rhymes
(Rotten as these) dragged from oblivion's shroud
Where, with the silly act that gave them birth,
They lay as lie the dead in sacred earth,
And see them, twice in one week, boomed aloud
To tickle penny readers of _The Times_.

O. S.

* * * * *

THE AUDIT.

This income of mine, in which the world has suddenly become so
interested, must be calculated from the following returns of past years,
being the figures supplied privately to Phyllis:--

(1) guineas. L
1911-1912. By fees as specialist 113 By occasional papers
in Medical Journals 35
1912-1913. ditto 152 ditto 42
1913-1914. ditto 203 ditto 37

(2) My capital is invested in Ordinary Stock, and brings in anything
from L50 to L100 a year, in accordance with the varying moods of the
directors.

(3) Lastly, I have now bought, out of my earnings, the freehold of the
premises in which I carry on my practice. In making out a Balance Sheet
this item must be regarded either as a liability or as an asset
accordingly as one takes the dark or the bright view of the position.
Either I owe myself so much a year for rent of the premises, in which
case it is a liability: or else myself owes me so much for rent, in
which case it is an asset. Practically speaking it doesn't much matter,
because it is a bad debt either way.

Those amongst my (apparently) most intimate friends, who are
money-lenders, do not ask for details. They are content to assume the
worst and hope for the best. Sir Reginald Hartley and Mr. Charles
Dugmore, Assessor of Taxes, the most interested enquirers, are not,
however, money-lenders.

Sir Reginald is not naturally an inquisitive man, and his concern for
me, in spite of my frequent appearance at his table, had hitherto