cried. "I should have been so grateful to
you."

"I'm very shortsighted," I rejoined, "and I thought you did. It is our
foolish little vanities which prevent us acting as we should. But let
me know if I can do anything for you. If you want me, I'll come at any
moment."

I said this because the warder had already given me a sign; he now
said:

"Time is up."

Once again we clasped hands.

"You must win," I said; "don't think of defeat. Even your enemies are
human. Convert them. You can do it, believe me," and I went with
dread in my heart, and pity and indignation.

Be still, be still, my soul; it is but for a season:
Let us endure an hour and see injustice done.

The Governor met me almost at the door.

"It is terrible," I exclaimed.

"This is no place for him," he answered. He has nothing to do with us
here. Everyone likes him and pities him: the warders, everyone.
Anything I can do to make his stay tolerable shall be done."

We shook hands. I think there were tears in both our eyes as we
parted. This humane Governor had taught me that Oscar's gentleness and
kindness--his sweetness of nature--would win all hearts if it had time
to make itself known. Yet there he was in prison. His face and figure
came before me again and again: the unshaven face; the frightened, sad
air; the hopeless, toneless voice. The cleanliness even of the bare
hard room was ugly; the English are foolish enough to degrade those
they punish. Revolt was blazing in me.

As I went away I looked up at the mediaeval castellated gateway of the
place, and thought how perfectly the architecture suited the spirit of
the institution. The whole thing belongs to the middle ages, and not
to our modern life. Fancy having both prison and hospital side by
side; indeed a hospital even in the prison; torture and
lovingkindness; punishment and pity under the same roof. What a blank
contradiction and stupidity. Will civilisation never reach humane
ideals? Will men always punish most severely the sins they do not
understand and which hold for them no temptation? Did Jesus suffer in
vain?

* * * * *

Oscar Wilde was committed on the 19th of April; a "true bill" was
found against him by the grand jury on the 24th; and, as the case was
put down for trial at the Old Bailey almost immediately, a
postponement was asked for till the May sessions, on the ground first
that the defence had not had time to prepare their ca