inside the large goblet. Shade of Heliogabalus! If the human tummy must
indeed be distended four times in twenty-four hours, need it be done so
solemnly, and with such a pig-like love of the trough? If they would
even eat what there is with joy one wouldn't mind, but the talk about
food, the once-enjoyed food, the favourite food, is really too tiresome.
"Where to dine" becomes a sort of test of true worth. Grave young men
give the names of four or five favoured places in London. Others, hailed
and acknowledged as really good judges, name half-a-dozen more in Paris
where they "do you well." The real toff knows that Russia is the place
to dine. We earnestly discuss blue-point oysters and caviare, which, if
you "know the man," you can get sent fresh on the Vienna Express from
Moscow.

[Page Heading: BERNARD SHAW]

I once asked Bernard Shaw to dinner, and he replied on a postcard:
"Never! I decline to sit in a hot room and eat dead animals, even with
you to amuse me!"

I always seem to be sitting in hot rooms and eating dead animals, and
then paying amazing high prices for them.

_4 November._--I dined with the ----s the other night. Either the hot
rooms, or the fact that I am anaemic at present, causes me to be so
sleepy in the evenings that I dislike dining out. I sway with sleep even
when people are talking to me. It was a middle-class little party, such
as I often enjoy. One's friends would fain only have one see a few fine
blooms, but I love common flowers.

We have been to see "Peter's little house." There was a tiny shrine,
crowded with people in wraps and shawls, who crossed themselves
ceaselessly, to the danger of their neighbours' faces, for so fervid
were their gesticulations that their hands flew in every direction! They
shoved with their elbows to get near the wax candles that dripped before
the pictures of the black-faced Virgin and Child, who were "allowing"
soldiers to be painfully slaughtered by the million.

Ye gods, what a faith! What an acrobatic performance to try and
reconcile a Father's personal care for His poor little sparrows and His
indifference at seeing so many of them stretched bleeding on the ground!

Religion so far has been a success where martyrs are concerned, but we
must go on with courage to something that teaches men to _live_ for the
best and the highest. This should come from ourselves, and lead up to
God. It should not require teaching, or priests, or even prayer.
Humanity