Oscar Wilde Volume 1 (of 2) Frank Harris Excerpt: ...classes.' He looked me in the face defiantly and said: "'A man has offered me £60 for it.' "'You should take the offer, ' I said gravely; '£60 is a great price. I myself have never received such a large sum for any prose work of that length. But I am glad to find that there is someone in England who will pay such a large sum for a letter of mine. I don't know why you come to me, ' I added, rising, 'you should sell the letter at once.' Pg 162 "Of course, Frank, as I spoke my body seemed empty with fear. The letter could be misunderstood, and I have so many envious enemies; but I felt that there was nothing else for it but bluff. As I went to the door Allen rose too, and said that the man who had offered him the money was out of town. I turned to him and said: "'He will no doubt return, and I don't care for the letter at all.' "At this Allen changed his manner, said he was very poor, he hadn't a penny in the world, and had spent a lot trying to find me and tell me about the letter. I told him I did not mind relieving his distress, and gave him half a sovereign, assuring him at the same time that the letter would shortly be published as a sonnet in a delightful magazine. I went to the door with him, and he walked away. I closed the door; but didn't shut it at once, for suddenly I heard a policeman's step coming softly towards my house--pad, pad! A dreadful moment, then he passed by. I went into the room again all shaken, wondering whether I had done right, whether Allen would hawk the letter about--a thousand vague apprehensions. "Suddenly a knock at the street door. My heart was in my mouth, still I went and opened it: a man named Cliburn was there. Pg 163 "'I have come to you with a letter of Allen's.' "'I cannot be bothered any more, ' I cried, 'about that letter; I don't care twopence about it. Let him do what he likes with it.' "To my astonishment Cliburn said: "'Allen has asked me to give... We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.