h my name is being
spread about. Belloc declares that everyone says to him "Who
discovered Chesterton?" and that he always replies "The genius
Oldershaw." This may be a trifle Gallic, but Hammond has shown me
more than one letter from Cambridge dons and such people demanding
the identity of G.K.C. in a quite violent tone. They excuse
themselves by offensive phrases in which the word "brilliant" occurs,
but I shouldn't wonder if there was a thick stick somewhere at the
back of it.

Belloc, by the way, has revealed another side of his extraordinary
mind. He seems to have taken our marriage much to heart, for he talks
to me, no longer about French Jacobins and Mediaeval Saints, but
entirely about the cheapest flats and furniture, on which, as on the
others, he is a mine of information, assuring me paternally that
"it's the carpet that does you." I should think this fatherly tone
would amuse you.

Now I must leave off: for the pages have come up to be seen through
the press. . . .

_Greybeards at Play_ its author never took very seriously. It was not
included in his Collected Poems and he does not even mention it in
his _Autobiography_. He attached a great deal more importance to _The
Wild Knight and Other Poems_. It was a volume of some fifty poems,
many of which had already appeared in _The Outlook_ and _The
Speaker_. It was published late in 1900 and produced a crop of
enthusiastic reviews and more and more people began to ask one
another, "Who is G. K. Chesterton?"

One reviewer wrote: "If it were not for the haunting fear of losing a
humourist we should welcome the author of _The Wild Knight_ to a high
place among the poets." Another spoke of the "curious intensity" of
the volume. Among those who were less pleased was John Davidson, on
whom the book had been fathered by one reviewer, and who denied
responsibility for such "frantic rubbish," and also a "reverent"
reviewer who complained, "It is scattered all over with the name of
God."

To Frances, Gilbert wrote:

I have been taken to see Mrs. Meynell, poet and essayist, who is
enthusiastic about the Wild Knight and is lending it to all her
friends.

Last night I went to Mrs. Cox's Book Party. My costume was a great
success, everyone wrestled with it, only one person guessed it, and
the rest admitted that it was quite fair and simple. It consisted of
wearing on the lapel of my dress coat