The Soul of the Schoolboy--Uncle (Reverend) takes his nephew to see old silver coin. They empty pockets to enter museum. Boy drops off magnet, string, junk. A monk/magician enters with them. Colonel Morris is in charge of the place, a skeptic. The boy, curious about a switch, plunges them all into darkness. When the lights come back on--the coin is gone. The "thief" is Colonel Morris who used the darkness to test his theory that the silver coin was a fraud. He used the boys magnet and string to fish the coin out of the display case, proving to himself that the coin was bogus--silver coated but iron, not silver, inside. Clever
February 1895 (Alice died in 1892) Money problems, jealousy of Wilde; time spent with Lord Wolseley1; off to Ireland to lick his wounds; Irish unrest--Irish landlords boycott all social events; much time spent with manservant Hammond (homosexual attraction again); fancy dress ball, appalling to James, who is only happy in company of Hammond, though Hammond remains a servant and no more; little girl alone on the grounds--inspiration for Turn of the Screw?; conflict with Webster who alludes to Wilde's successful play and HJ's failure; Wolseley was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army . He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, West Africa, and Egypt, followed by a central role in modernizing the British Army in promoting efficiency. He served in Burma, the Crimean War , the Indian Mutiny , China, Canada and widely throughout Africa—including his Ashanti campaign (18...
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