[I have invented nothing, nor altered anything, in the last few sentences I have quoted. Wilde's words are fixed in my mind, and, I might almost say, in my ears. I do not say that Wilde clearly saw the prison opening to receive him, but I do assert that the great and unexpected event which astonished and upset London, suddenly changing Oscar Wilde from accuser into accused, did not cause him any surprise.
The newspapers, which chose to see in him only a buffoon, misrepresented, as far as they could, the position taken up for his defence, even to the extent of wresting all meaning from it. Perhaps some day in the far future it will be seemly to lift this dreadful trial out of the mire—but not yet.]
[1] An Ideal Husband at the Haymarket and The Importance of Being Earnest at the St. James's. Possibly Lady Windermere's Fan or A Woman of No Importance was being played at a suburban theatre at the same time.
[2] M. Gide first wrote euphuisme but altered it to euphémisme on republishing his 'Study' in Prétextes. Euphuism or 'extreme nicety in language' seems to be more appropriate in the present case than euphemism or 'a softening of offensive expressions.'
III.
For the crimson flower of our life is eaten by the cankerworm
of truth.
And no hand can gather up the fallen withered petals
of the rose of youth.