point
of fact been guilty of these particular peccadilloes, he had quite
certainly committed the crime of speaking lightly of Mr. Pope, as "a
little envious animal," some seven years ago; and it was for this grave
indiscretion that Pope was dexterously goading the man into insanity,
and eventually drove him to suicide. . . .

The storm made the room dark and reading difficult. Still, this was an
even more amusing letter, from the all-powerful Duchess of Marlborough.
In as civil terms as her sick rage could muster, the frightened woman
offered Mr. Pope L1,000 to suppress his verbal portrait of her, in the
character of Atossa, from his _Moral Essays_; and Pope straightway
decided to accept the bribe, and afterward to print his verses
unchanged. For the hag, as he reflected, very greatly needed to be
taught that in this world there was at least one person who did not
quail before her tantrums. There would be, moreover, even an
elementary justice in thus robbing her who had robbed England at large.
And, besides, her name was Sarah. . . .

Pope lighted four candles and set them before the long French mirror.
He stood appraising his many curious deformities while the storm raged.
He stood sidelong, peering over his left shoulder, in order to see the
outline of his crooked back. Nowhere in England, he reflected, was
there a person more pitiable and more repellent outwardly.

"And, oh, it would be droll," Pope said, aloud, "if our exteriors were
ever altogether parodies. But time keeps a diary in our faces, and
writes a monstrously plain hand. Now, if you take the first letter of
Mr. Alexander Pope's Christian name, and the first and last letters of
his surname, you have A. P. E.," Pope quoted, genially. "I begin to
think that Dennis was right. What conceivable woman would not prefer a
well-set man of five-and-twenty to such a withered abortion? And what
does it matter, after all, that a hunchback has dared to desire a
shapely brown-haired woman?"

Pope came more near to the mirror. "Make answer, you who have dared to
imagine that a goddess was ever drawn to descend into womanhood except
by kisses, brawn and a clean heart."

Another peal of thunder bellowed. The storm was growing furious. "Yet
I have had a marvelous dream. Now I awaken. I must go on in the old
round. As long as my wits preserve their agility I must be able to
amuse, to flatter and, at need, to intimidate the patrons of that ape
in the mirro