Though I cant say I feel anythe better for
it.
He also once gave me the following
document,imploring me to keep it in some safe place:ROME, Nov.
And yourtrousers hanging to the top of the
wardrobe. Can a manwho lacks sympathy with erring humanity give us a convincing
pictureof it?
Needless toadd, he was simply dumbfounded when I
told him the story. But truth is like that whisky of yours: not to betaken neat
without disastrous consequences. He was writing on this very theme when the
warcaught him unawares. Oh, and I asked OBeirne about thosebeetroots.
You cant imagine how it hurts me, when you talk
like that.
Italy was the land of hisadoption, of his heart, of
his religion. Lifewould indeed be a bore, if constructed on the lines of the
ordinarynovel. He repudiated with passion his German blood.
I grew sleepy and grumpy, yearning to go tobed, and
did my best to make Maurice change his mind. Hewould not touch the book; perhaps it
is on the Index, where I think itought to be.
Catch me keeping up such acorrespondence with a
person whom I despise!
I have also a letter from thegentleman whom
Lawrence calls Mr.
Id like to tidy the room a bit, if you dontmind,
before the man comes in.
The other thought a while and then said:I cannot
explain it at all.
An American citizen, he neverfelt at home in the
hustling Republic. Now let us try to be fair to my young friend; it is soeasy to be
unfair!
At the last, as he told an American friend,he could
not face an Italian prison. Rome, shall go to Norman Douglaswithout any
reservation.
Often I recommended Nietzsche as a
counter-irritant.
He maderesearches at the Goethe-Archiv in Weimar on
several occasions. No publisher would touch it with tongs as it stands. The other
thought a while and then said:I cannot explain it at all.