have said, and my name might be classed with that of
Churton Collins, though, of course, I've no right to speak for
literature," and without more ado he signed the petition, adding,
"Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin."

"When you next see Oscar," he continued, "please tell him that my wife
and I asked after him. We both hold him in grateful memory as a most
brilliant talker and writer, and a charming fellow to boot. Confusion
take all their English Puritanism."

Merely living in Ireland tends to make an Englishman more humane; but
one name was not enough, and Tyrrell's was the only one I could get. In
despair, and knowing that George Wyndham had had a great liking for
Oscar, and admiration for his high talent, I asked him to lunch at the
Savoy; laid the matter before him, and begged him to give me his name.
He refused, and in face of my astonishment he excused himself by saying
that, as soon as the rumour had reached him of Oscar's intimacy with
Bosie Douglas, he had asked Oscar whether there was any truth in the
scandalous report.

"You see," he went on, "Bosie is by way of being a relation of mine, and
so I had the right to ask. Oscar gave me his word of honour that there
was nothing but friendship between them. He lied to me, and that I can
never forgive."

A politician unable to forgive a lie--surely one can hear the mocking
laughter of the gods! I could say nothing to such paltry affected
nonsense. Politician-like Wyndham showed me how the wind of popular
feeling blew, and I recognised that my efforts were in vain.

There is no fellow-feeling among English men of letters; in fact they
hold together less than any other class and, by himself, none of them
wished to help a wounded member of the flock. I had to tell Sir Ruggles
Brise that I had failed.

I have been informed since that if I had begun by asking Thomas Hardy, I
might have succeeded. I knew Hardy; but never cared greatly for his
talent. I daresay if I had had nothing else to do I might have succeeded
in some half degree. But all these two years I was extremely busy and
anxious; the storm clouds in South Africa were growing steadily darker
and my attitude to South African affairs was exceedingly unpopular in
London. It seemed to me vitally important to prevent England from making
war on the Boers. I had to abandon the attempt to get Oscar's sentence
shortened, and comfort myself with Sir Ruggles Brise's assurance that he
would be t