effects of
the alcohol is absolute nonsense. It would have just as bad an effect
under any conditions. Dr. Bakewell said that G.K. was his patient for
nearly twenty years and during that time he never treated him for
alcoholism or saw any trace of it, though in an absentminded way he
was always liable to drink too much of anything if it were
there--even water.

"Without the 'understanding, loving, tactful care' of Frances he would
have died twenty years before. Certainly if he had racketted around
Fleet Street any longer.

"Dr. Bakewell said Gilbert was 'perfectly happy in Beaconsfield and
not in any way frustrated. There was no frustration of any kind and
no longing for London life or friends.' He was very intimate with
Gilbert and would have known if there had been.

"(2) The doctor says that Gilbert died of a failing heart owing to
fatty degeneration, leading to dropsy.

"(3) Frances had arthritis of the spine. (Not curvature as stated by
Mrs. Cecil.)

"The doctor said that he put him on the water wagon several times and
when this was done Gilbert observed the rule most meticulously. Dr.
Bakewell said that he did not do it very often because he did not
consider that drink was in any way affecting Gilbert's health during
the greater part of the time he knew him."

In a later conversation he added that when he did forbid alcohol at
certain periods it was simply to make liquid less attractive, as too
much of even water was bad for Gilbert.

The statement made by Mrs. Cecil that drinking in London was not so
serious because the talk and excitement among friends would carry off
the effects, is thought by doctors almost comic. Dr. Bakewell denies
it absolutely: Dr. Pocock who, it will be remembered, attended
Gilbert during his illness of 1914-15 says, "Absolute nonsense: would
probably have been worse in London." He adds also, "I cannot
understand why such an attack was made upon G.K. From my personal
observation he owed a very great deal to Mrs. G.K. who greatly helped
his restoration to health."

One can get one's pen'orth of fun out of the chapter on the Exile of
Beaconsfield when one remembers the true story of those years: Rome,
Jerusalem, U.S.A., Poland, France, Spain, Malta, lectures all over
England, lively contests for the Lord Rectorship of three
universities, London again and again--for editing, mock trials,
debates and Distributist Beanos--and frequently in furnished flats
which Frances would take f