P.S.—The book was never written, for my publishers could not be persuaded to take G.B.S. at his own or my estimate.
Mr George Moore, on being approached, wrote me from Dublin, saying, inconsequently enough, that he had never asked anybody to write about him nor had he ever asked anybody to refrain from doing so. On the whole, he thought it better that if A (myself) wished to write about B (Mr George Moore), it would be an excellent arrangement, provided that:
(1) A was an intimate friend of B’s, or
(2) A was a complete stranger to B.
I was left, most courteously, to infer that I (A), being a complete stranger, had better remain so.
I did.
I have done.
[22]
]CHAPTER II
MISCELLANEOUS
Mrs Annie Besant—Marcus Stone—Lloyd George—Bishop Welldon—Dr Walford Davies
Mrs Annie Besant, like her Himalayan Mahatmas, is lofty, remote, and difficult of access. Only once was I admitted to The Presence. What drove me there was, first of all, curiosity, and, secondly, a feeling of great respect for her which I had retained from boyhood. I admired her courage, her independence, her friendship with and loyalty to Bradlaugh; moreover, I have always held in high regard those who, from temperamental or spiritual discord with their fellows, have kicked over the intellectual traces and run a race of their own. Annie Besant, whatever else she may be, is a woman of courage, of vast resource and of indomitable will.