in which they made their homes: their patriotism could be
only for their race. In principle, he believed in the solution of
Zionism. And then the reporter in large letters made a headline: "Mr.
Chesterton said that speaking generally, as with most other
communities, 'THE POOR JEWS WERE NICE AND THE RICH WERE NASTY.'"

Many years later in Palestine he was to be driven around the country,
as he has described in _The New Jerusalem_, by one of these less
wealthy Jews who had sacrificed his career in England to his national
idealism. And later yet, after G.K.'s death, Rabbi Wise, a leader of
American Jewry, paid him tribute (in a letter to Cyril Clements dated
September 8, 1937):

Indeed I was a warm admirer of Gilbert Chesterton. Apart from his
delightful art and his genius in many directions, he was, as you
know, a great religionist. He as Catholic, I as Jew, could not have
seen eye to eye with each other, and he might have added
"particularly seeing that you are cross-eyed"; but I deeply respected
him. When Hitlerism came, he was one of the first to speak out with
all the directness and frankness of a great and unabashed spirit.
Blessing to his memory!

CHAPTER XVI

A Circle of Friends

IN THE LAST chapter, this chapter and to a considerable extent those
that follow, down to the break made by Gilbert's illness and the war
of 1914, it is unavoidable that the same years should be retraced to
cover a variety of aspects. For their home was for both Gilbert and
Frances the centre of a widening circle. Although I visited
Overroads, it seems to me, looking back, I saw them just then much
more frequently in London and elsewhere. Several times they stayed at
Lotus, our Surrey home. The first time it was a weekend of blazing
summer weather. Lady Blennerhassett was there--formerly Countess
Leyden and a favourite disciple of Doellinger. I remember she
delighted Gilbert by her comment on Modernism. "I must," she said,
"have the same religion as my washerwoman, and Father Tyrrell's is
not the religion for my washerwoman." We sat on the terrace in the
sunshine and Lady Blennerhassett asked suddenly whether the soles of
our boots were, like hers, without hole or blemish. We all looked
very odd as we stuck our feet out and tried to see the soles.
Gilbert, offered a wicker chair, preferred the grass because, he
said, there was grave danger he might unduly "modify" the chair.

After a meeting of the W