or I will disown you and stop all money supplies. I am not going to try and
analyse this intimacy, and I make no charge; but to my mind to pose as a thing
is as bad as to be it. With my own eyes I saw you both in the most loathsome
and disgusting relationship as expressed by your manner and expression. Never
in my experience have I ever seen such a sight as that in your horrible
features. No wonder people are talking as they are. Also I now hear on good
authority, but this may be false, that his wife is petitioning to divorce him
for sodomy and other crimes. Is this true, or do you not know of it? If I
thought the actual thing was true, and it became public property, I should be
quite justified in shooting him at sight. These Christian English cowards and
men, as they call themselves, want waking up.

Your disgusted so-called father,

Queensberry.

In reply to this letter Lord Alfred Douglas telegraphed:

"What a funny little man you are! Alfred Douglas."

This telegram was excellently calculated to drive Queensberry frantic with rage.
There was feminine cunning in its wound to vanity.

A little later Oscar told me that Queensberry accompanied by a friend had called
on him.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I said to him, 'I suppose, Lord Queensberry, you have come to apologise for the
libellous letter you wrote about me?'