1903] Henley's Death 63 



dental chance combination of opposite interests is to press on not only 

 Report, but also the Third Reading of the Land Bill. . . . The question 

 resolves itself into this — can Report be finished on Friday, 17th, to 

 Monday, 20th? If so, by a coup de main we might get Tuesday, 21st, 

 afternoon sitting, for the Third Reading. ... If this plan succeeds I 

 know that the Land Bill will be driven over at least to the 27th-3ist, 

 with the result that it will not reach the Lords before Monday, 3rd 

 August. 



' All the above is no doubt gibberish to you. But as you have 

 taken so deep an interest in the fortunes of the Land Bill, I wish 

 you to know exactly how the matter stands. You might like to 

 see me on Tuesday morning with anyone else who takes a deep 

 interest in the fortunes of the Bill. At any rate I felt impelled to 

 acquaint you with the situation, etc' 



" iyh July. — Henley is dead. I got a note from George on Satur- 

 day telling me he was very ill, but the end has been sudden. About 

 Henley's relations with Stevenson, Meynell, who was with me to-day, 

 was again eloquent. He knew the Henleys well, having been god- 

 father to the daughter that died, and he says that Henley's anger against 

 Stevenson was of old date, from at least the time of Stevenson's mar- 

 riage. He could not forgive him for having forsaken the Bohemian 

 convivial ways Henley delighted in, and, though he constantly received 

 money help from Stevenson afterwards, always resented his conver- 

 sion to respectability. He considers Henley's attack upon his friend 

 an unpardonable offence. I confess I do not like Henley, though I 

 have tried to like him for George's sake. But he is both physically 

 and intellectually repugnant to me. He has the bodily horror of the 

 dwarf, with the dwarf's huge bust and head and shrunken nether limbs, 

 and he has also the dwarf malignity of tongue and defiant attitude 

 towards the world at large. Moreover, I am quite out of sympathy with 

 Henley's deification of brute strength and courage, things I wholly 

 despise. Thus I could never feel at my ease with him, and George's 

 affection for him has always seemed to me a puzzle. 



" 14th July. — To London early, and found notes in Chapel Street 

 from both George and Redmond, who have met elsewhere and ar- 

 ranged about the Third Reading of the Bill. George and Sibell at 

 Belgrave Square were just starting in black for Henley's funeral. 

 They wanted me to go with them, but I excused myself. I never 

 go to funerals or wish anyone to go to mine. 



" At four Miss Cornelia Sorabje called to talk about some Indian 

 affair which interested her. She came clad in an orange garment after 

 the fashion of ladies in her own country, which became her well. 

 She has been a very pretty woman, though now I imagine thirty, 

 with an exceedingly sweet voice, and I gave her tea. 



