Kings Land, Shipley, Horsham
It will annoy you a good deal to hear that I am in town tomorrow Wednesday evening and that I shall appear at your Apartment at 10.45 or 10.30 at earliest. P.M.! You are only just returned. You are hardly settled down. It is an intolerable nuisance. You heartily wish I had not mentioned it.
Well, you see that [arrow pointing to "Telegrams, Coolham, Sussex">[, if you wire there before One you can put me off, but if you do I shall melt your keys, both the exterior one which forms the body or form of the matter and the interior one which is the mystical content thereof.
Also if you put me off I shall not have you down here ever to see
the Oak Room, the Tapestry Room, the Green Room etc.
Yrs,
H.B.
Early in his Battersea life Gilbert received a note from Max Beerbohm, the great humourist, introducing himself and suggesting a luncheon together.
I am quite different from my writings (and so, I daresay, are you
from yours)—so that we should not necessarily fail to hit it off.
I, in the flesh, am modest, full of commonsense, very genial, and
rather dull.
What you are remains to be seen—or not to be seen—by me, according
to your decision.
Gilbert's decision was for the meeting and an instant liking grew into a warm friendship. As in J.D.C. days Gilbert had written verse about his friends, so now did he try to sum up an impression, perhaps after some special talk: