"Always say 'lower limbs' when talking to a lady, Philip--
"--_lower limbs, followed by general prostration of the entire system. I am now sufficiently recovered to don my armour once more; but alas! my occupation is gone. My Fellowship expired six months ago, and has not been renewed. My pupils are dispersed to the corners of the earth. Entirely without private means, I have migrated to London, where I am endeavouring to eke out an existence in a populous but inexpensive quarter of the town--the existence of a retired scholar and gentleman, save the mark!--_
"No, don't put that. She will think clerical means something to do with the Church. Say 'secretarial' instead--
"_Have you any typing you could give me to do? I hate asking, and I know that you know I hate asking; but there is a subconscious, subliminal bond, subjective and objective,--_
"I don't know what that means, but it sounds splendid--
"_--that links together all brothers of the pen; and I venture to hope that in appealing to you, of all our great brotherhood, I shall not appeal in vain._
"We had better wind up with a classical quotation of some kind," concluded Uncle Joseph. "She will expect it from a Don with paralytic legs, I fancy. Reach me down that Juvenal, Philip. I have a notion. Yes, here we are:--
"_Possibly you may ask, and ask with justice, why the University has done nothing for me. I did make an appeal to the authorities; but--well, a man hates to have to appeal twice for a thing that should by rights be granted without appeal at all; and I desisted. The University is rich and respectable; I am worn-out and shabby. What could I do?_
_Plurima sunt quæ Non homines audent pertusa dicere læna._
"Get that down right, Philip. She may take it to some educated person to get it translated."
"What does it mean, Uncle Joseph?" asked Philip, carefully copying out the tag.
"It means, roughly, that a man with patches on his trousers cannot afford to ask for much. Now to wind up:--
"_So I pray you--not of your charity, but of your good-comradeship--to send me a little work to do. The remuneration I leave to you. I am too destitute--and perhaps too proud--to drive a bargain._ _Yours fraternally, Arthur Brown._
"Put 'Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.' You can add the Islington address when James Nimmo has fixed it up. Then type it out. Do about seventy copies. I have been going through the lady members of the Authors' Society, and have picked out most of its female geniuses. Now for next week's list for the Kind Young Hearts! Three or four of the old items can stand--particularly Papodoodlekos: he is a very lucrative old gentleman--but the others must come out. I shall not send the revised list, though, to your friend--what was that humourist's name?"