1892] Har court on the Souls 83 



the betting, but Theodore Watts declares he will refuse. That's per- 

 haps all the more reason.' 



" $th Nov. — A note from Margot, ' au grand galop/ asking me to 

 luncheon at her sister Charlotte's. Their paper is to be called ' To- 

 morrow, a Woman's Journal for Men.' I was shown the title-page. 

 It is to come out every two months, and they expect it to run for a 

 year. They are in straits for a political leader writer, and I suggested 

 Lady Gregory. 



11 8th Nov. — Lunched at 11, Downing Street, with the Harcourts. 

 Great joking by Sir William about the ' Souls ' journal. I suggested 

 as a motto for it, solus cum sola, with an armorial coat, 

 bearing two flat fish osculant all proper. ' Ah,' he said, ' it is their 

 bodies that I like, and now they are going to show us their souls all 

 naked in print, I shall not care for them. Isn't that so, Sophy?' (to 

 his niece, Sophy Sheridan, who sat next to him, pinching her arm.) 

 He went on to politics : ' We have drawn out a bill this morning," he 

 said, ' which will destroy all temperance in England for many years to 

 come. We asked Arch ' (the agricultural labour member) 'how many 

 parishes in England would vote against public-houses, and he said with 

 conviction " not a single one." ' 



" 22nd Nov. — Crabbet. Two young monks of the Capuchins at 

 Crawley called on me some days ago — Father Cuthbert and Father 

 Angelo de Barry — to interest me in a project they have of founding 

 a working order of St. Francis instead of the old begging one. Father 

 Cuthbert, who had already spoken to me vaguely of his ideas of 

 Church reform, sent me to-day a note by Father Angelo, setting forth 

 the scheme, and asking help for them to get to Rome and lay it before 

 the Pope. I gave them the money they wanted, £50, with pleasure, 

 for it seems to me a good and timely undertaking which may well lead 

 to noble things. [The poor young men went to Rome, but, as was to 

 be expected, came back with a flea in their ears. They were the leaders 

 of the Modernist Reform Party in their Order but could not get a 

 hearing at the Vatican. They very honourably returned to me the 

 journey money.] 



" I am leaving England for Sheykh Obeyd. A trouble to me is the 

 apparent failure of ' Esther.' It is not reviewed, for which I care 

 little, but even my friends are silent about it, and several of them dis- 

 approve. Only from George Meredith has a letter of high approval 

 come, and one from York Powell at Oxford." 



