rison's, the shortest of the whole batch.

"I write, not in anger but in sorrow. Lalage, whom I can only think of
as a dear but misguided child, has been led away by the influence of
undesirable companions into a grievous mistake. I shrink from applying'
a severer word. As a man of the world I cannot shut my eyes to the fact
that the money, the considerable sum of money, which you have placed
at the disposal of these young people has proved a temptation, not to
Lalage, but to those with whom she has unfortunately associated herself.
In the event of your deciding, as I strongly urge you to do, to withdraw
your financial guarantee, these unscrupulous persons, seeing no prospect
of further profit, will no doubt cease to lead Lalage astray."

The idea in the Archdeacon's mind evidently was that Selby-Harrison
and Hilda had exploited Lalage, and obtained the money for unhallowed
revellings, from me. I should like to hear Hilda's mother's opinion of
the Archdeacon's view. Its injustice was of course quite evident to me.
I had Selby-Harrison's accounts before me, and nothing could be clearer
than they were. Besides I knew from my mother's letter that what the
Archdeacon now said about Selby-Harrison and Hilda he had originally
said about me. When the truth, the whole truth, about the publication
of the _Anti-Tommy-Rot Gazette_ is published, it will be recognized that
Selby-Harrison, Hilda, and I, so far from urging Lalage on or leading
her astray, were from first to last little more than tools for her use,
clay in her potter's hands.

My fifth letter turned out to be from the Provost of Trinity College.
It was written in very courteous terms and was, on the whole, the most
encouraging I had yet read.

He wrote:

"You must forgive my meddling in your affairs, and accept the fact that
I am, in some sense, an old family friend, as my excuse for offering
you a word of advice. I knew your father before you were born, and as
a young man I often dined at your grandfather's table. This gives me a
kind of right to make a suggestion which I have no doubt you will take
in good part. Three young people, who as students in this college are
more or less under my charge, have got into a scrape which might very
well be serious but which, I hope, will turn out in the end to be merely
ridiculous. They have printed and published a small magazine in which no
less than twenty-one of the Irish bishops are fiercely attacked.

"It is only fair