LEON Y CASTILLO 5,
TELDE,
GRAN CANARIA.
_14 Feb. 1904._
No, you draw a wrong inference from my silence. When I am hurt I cry.
When I am not crying I am happy. In this instance I have been very
happy indeed and so busy that I have taken six weeks over a novel, and
am once more developing a corn on my little finger by copying.... All
that you tell me of the Studies Syndicate is extremely interesting--you
may rely upon my discretion, for as you remark there is nobody to whom
I could babble--even _La Manana_ which is often hard up for news would
I fear give me nothing for secret intelligence concerning the S.S.
Writing those initials made me think of your Eranus. I wish that I
had heard you. I think that I might have been able to add an ancient
story or two. I think that I once told you how the "to wit" placed
after the name of a county at the beginning of a legal record (e.g.
Cambridgeshire, to wit, A.B. complains that C. D. etc.) represents a
mere flourish ʃ dividing the name of the county from the beginning of
the story. This was mistaken for a long S which was supposed to be
the abbreviation of scilicet. The Spaniards are fond of using mere
initials: after a dead person's name you can put q.d.h.e.g. = que Dios
haya en gloria. The case that amuses me most is that you can speak of
the Host as S.D.M. (his divine majesty--just like H.R.H.). One day
in Las Palmas I had to spring from my bicycle and kneel in the road
because S.D.M. was coming along. But I have just had my revenge. I have
been mistaken for S.D.M. They ring a little bell in front of him. I
rarely ring my bicycle bell because I don't think it a civil thing to
do in a land where cycles are very rare. However the other day I was
almost upon the backs of two men, so I rang. They started round and at
the same time instinctively raised their hats--and instead of S.D.M.
there was only an _hereje_.
To be sure those letters of Acton's are thrilling. I saw them out here
last year. Mrs Drew wanted me to edit them. I declined the task, after
talking to Leslie Stephen. Obviously I was not the right man. I am
boundlessly ignorant of contemporary history and could not in the least
tell what would give undeserved and unnecessary pain. On the other
hand I should think that H. Paul was the right man for the job.
... I hope that Vol. III is doing well, though I foresee that I shall
be slated in all quarters. Acton was an adroit flatterer and induced me
to put my hand far into a very nest of hornets.