ody and he says that the general opinion there is that
it is blasphemous. Even the Canon is a good deal upset and has gone away
for a holiday to the north of Scotland. I had a postcard from him to-day
with a picture of the town hall at Wick on the back of it. He wrote
nothing except the words, 'Virtute mea me unvolvo.' I have Latin enough
to guess that this--is it a quotation from his favourite Horace?--is a
description of his own attitude toward Lalage's performance. Miss
Pettigrew, who is greatly interested, and I think on the whole
sympathetic with Lalage, writes that eighteen bishops have already begun
actions for libel, and that three more are expected to do so as soon as
they recover from fits of nervous prostration brought on by Lalage's
attacks on them. A postscript to her letter gets nearer than anything
else I have come across to giving a coherent account of what has
actually taken place. 'Lalage,' she writes, 'has shown a positively
diabolical ingenuity in picking out for the pillory all the most
characteristically episcopal utterances for the last two years.' You
will understand better than I do what this means."

I did understand what Miss Pettigrew meant, but I do not think that
Lalage ought to be given: the whole credit. Selby-Harrison did the
research.

My mother went on:

"Father Maconchy, the P.P., stopped me on the road this afternoon to
say that he hoped there was no truth in the report that you are mixed up
in what he calls a disgraceful attempt at proselytizing. The Archdeacon
tells me that in ecclesiastical circles (his, not Father Maconchy's,
ecclesiastical circles) you are credited with having urged Lalage on,
and says he fears your reputation will suffer."

I put the letter down at this point and swore. Extreme stupidity always
makes me swear. It is almost the only thing in the world which does. The
Archdeacon, who has been acquainted with Lalage since her birth, ought
to have more sense than to suppose, or allow any one else to suppose,
that she ever required urging on. Even Father Maconchy's reading of the
situation was intelligent compared to that.

"Miss Pettigrew says that the Trinity College authorities have taken
the matter up and are strongly of opinion that you are financing the
publication. Thormanby tells me that the same rumour is current in the
club. He heard it from five or six different men, and says he has been
written to about the matter since he came home by people who ar