Page:Hermione and her little group of serious thinkers (1923, c1916).djvu/131

 FOTHERGIL FINCH TELLS OF HIS REVOLT AGAINST ORGANIZED SOCIETY

ERTIE GRIGGS—you know Ethelbert Griggs, don't you? He does the text for the Paris fashions for a woman's magazine, and on the side he writes the most impassioned verse. All about Serpents, and Women, and Lillith and Phryne, you know.

Bertie said to me only the other day, "Fothy, you are too Radical. It will keep you down in the world."

"Bertie," I said, "I know I am, but can I help it? I spurn the world! A truly virile poet must."

"Some day, Fothy," he said, "you will come into contact with the law."

I only laughed. Bitterly, I suppose, for Bertie looked at me quite shocked.

"Bertie," I said, "I expect Persecution. I welcome it. All great souls do. I look for it. On one pretext or another, I will be flung into prison when my next volume, 'Clamor, Cries and Curses' comes out."

And I will, too, if I ever find a publisher who [117]