and give
him that besides. He told me that was too liberal; he would be quite
content with what I paid Shaw: he feared that no one else in England
would ever publish his work again.

He promised to send me the book "De Profundis" as soon as it was
finished. Just before his release his friend, Mr. More Adey, called upon
me and wanted to know whether I would publish Oscar's work. I said I
would. He then asked me what I would give for it. I told him I didn't
want to make anything out of Oscar and would give him as much as I
could, rehearsing the proposal I had made to Oscar. Thereupon he told me
Oscar would prefer a fixed price. I thought the answer extraordinary and
the gentle, urbane manner of Mr. More Adey, whom I hardly knew at that
time and misunderstood, got on my nerves. I replied curtly that before I
could state a price, I'd have to see the work, adding at the same time
that I had wished to do Oscar a good turn, but, if he could find another
publisher, I'd be delighted. Mr. More Adey assured me that there was
nothing in the book to which any prude even could object, no _arriere
pensee_ of any kind, and so forth and so on. I answered with a jest, a
wretched play on his French phrase.

That night I happened to dine with Whistler and telling him of what had
occurred called forth a most stinging gibe at Oscar's expense.
Whistler's _mot_ cannot be published.

A week or two later Oscar asked me to get him some clothes, which I did
and on his release sent them to him, and received in reply a letter
thanking me which I reproduce on page 583.

In that same talk with Oscar in Reading Gaol, I was so desirous of
helping him that I proposed a driving tour through France. I told him of
one I had made a couple of years before which was full of delightful
episodes--an entrancing holiday. He jumped at the idea, said nothing
would please him better, he would feel safe with me, and so forth. In
order to carry out the idea in the best way I ordered an American mail
phaeton so that a pair of horses would find the load, even with luggage,
ridiculously light. I asked Mr. More Adey whether Oscar had spoken to
him of this proposed trip: he told me he had heard nothing of it.

In one letter to me Oscar asked me to postpone the tour; afterwards he
never mentioned it. I thought I had been treated rather cavalierly. As I
had gone to some expense in getting everything ready and making myself
free, I, no doubt, expressed some amazement at