Part 18 (1/2)

Dear Sidney,

I am happy that you are happy with my progress on Elizabeth's biography. But more about that later-because I have something to tell you that simply cannot wait. I hardly dare believe it myself, but it's true. I saw it with my own eyes! If, and mind you only if, I am correct, Stephens & Stark will have the publis.h.i.+ng coup of the century. Papers will be written, degrees granted, and Isola will be pursued by every scholar, university, library, and filthy-rich private collector in the Western hemisphere.

Here are the facts-Isola was to speak at last night's Society meeting on Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice, but Ariel ate her notes just before supper. So, in lieu of Jane, and in a desperate hurry, she grabbed some letters written to her dear Granny Pheen (short for Josephine). They, the letters, made up a kind of story.

She pulled them out of her pocket, and Will Thisbee, seeing them swathed in pink silk and tied with a satin bow, cried out, 'Love letters, I'll be bound! Will there be secrets? Intimacies? Should gentlemen leave the room?'

Isola told him to be quiet and sit down. She said they were letters to her Granny Pheen from a very kind man-a stranger-received when she was but a little girl. Granny had kept them in a biscuit tin and had often read them to Isola as a bedtime story. Sidney, there were eight letters, and I'm not going to attempt to describe their contents to you-I'd fail miserably.

Isola told us that when Granny Pheen was nine years old, her father drowned her cat. m.u.f.fin had apparently climbed on to the table and licked the b.u.t.ter dish. That was enough for Pheen's beastly father-he thrust m.u.f.fin into a sack, added some rocks, tied up the sack, and flung m.u.f.fin into the sea. Then, meeting Pheen walking home from school, he told her what he'd done-and good riddance, too. He then toddled off to the tavern and left Granny sitting in the middle of the road, sobbing her heart out.

A carriage, driving far too fast, came within a whisker of running her down. The coachman rose from his seat and began to curse her, but his pa.s.senger, a very big man in a dark coat with a fur collar, jumped out. He told the driver to be quiet, leaned over Pheen, and asked if he could help her. Granny Pheen said no, no-she was beyond help. Her cat was gone! Her dad had drowned m.u.f.fin, and now m.u.f.fin was dead-dead and gone for ever.

The man said, 'Of course m.u.f.fin's not dead. You do know cats have nine lives, don't you?' When Pheen said yes, she had heard of that before, the man said, 'Well, I happen to know your m.u.f.fin was only on her third life, so she has six lives left.' Pheen asked how he knew. He said he just did, He Always Knew-it was a gift he'd been born with. He didn't know how or why it happened, but cats would often appear in his mind and chat with him. Well, not in words, of course, but in pictures.

He sat down in the road beside her and told her to keep still-very still. He would see if m.u.f.fin wanted to visit him. They sat in silence for several minutes, when suddenly the man grabbed Pheen's hand!

'Ah-yes! There she is! She's being born this minute! In a mansion-no, a castle. I think she's in France-yes, she's in France. There's a little boy petting her, stroking her fur. He loves her already, and he's going to call her-how strange, he's going to call her Solange. That's a strange name for a cat, but still. She is going to have a long, venturesome life. This Solange has great spirit, great verve-I can tell already!'

Granny Pheen told Isola that she was so rapt by m.u.f.fin's new fate that she stopped crying. But she told the man she would still miss m.u.f.fin very much. The man lifted her to her feet and said of course she would-she should mourn such a fine cat as m.u.f.fin had been, and she would grieve for some time yet. However, he said, he would visit Solange every so often and find out how she was faring and what she was up to. He asked for Granny Pheen's name and the name of the farm where she lived. He wrote the answers down in a small notebook with a silver pencil, told her she'd be hearing from him, kissed her hand, got back into the carriage, and left.

Absurd as all this sounds, Sidney, Granny Pheen did receive letters. Eight long letters over a year-all about m.u.f.fin's life as the French cat Solange. She was, apparently, something of a feline musketeer. She was no idle cat, lolling about on cus.h.i.+ons, lapping up cream-she lived through one wild adventure after another-the only cat ever to be awarded the red rosette of the Legion of Honour.

What a story this man made up for Pheen-lively, witty, full of drama and suspense. I can only tell you the effect it had on me-on all of us. We sat enchanted-even Will was left speechless. But here, at last, is why I need your sane head and sober counsel. When the reading was over (and much applauded), I asked Isola if I could see the letters, and she handed them to me.

Sidney, the writer had signed his letters with a grand flourish: VERY TRULY YOURS, VERY TRULY YOURS, O. F. O'F. W. W. O. F. O'F. W. W.

Sidney, do you suppose...could it possibly be that Isola has inherited eight letters written by Oscar Wilde? Oh G.o.d, I am beside myself. I believe it because I want to believe it, but is it recorded anywhere that Oscar Wilde ever set foot on Guernsey? Oh, bless Speranza, for giving her son such a preposterous name as Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde.

In haste and love and please advise at once-I'm having difficulty breathing.

Juliet Night Letter from Sidney to Juliet 13th August 1946 August 1946

Let's believe it! Billee did some research and discovered that Oscar Wilde visited Jersey for a week in 1893, so it's possible he went to Guernsey then. The noted graphologist Sir William Otis will arrive on Friday, armed with some borrowed letters of Oscar Wilde's from his university's collection. I've booked rooms for him at the Royal Hotel. He's a very dignified sort, and I doubt that he'd want Zen.o.bia on his shoulder.

If Will Thisbee finds the Holy Grail in his junk yard, don't tell me. My heart can't take much more.

Love to you and Kit and Isola, Sidney From Isola to Sidney 14th August 1946 August 1946

Dear Sidney,

Juliet says you're sending a handwriting fellow to look at Granny Pheen's letters and decide if Mr Oscar Wilde wrote them. I bet he did, and even if he didn't, I think you will admire Solange's story. I did, Kit did, and I know Granny Pheen did. She would twirl, happy in her grave, to have so many others know about that nice man and his funny ideas.

Juliet told me that if Mr Wilde did write the letters, many teachers and schools and libraries would want to own them and would offer me sums of money for them. They would be sure to keep them in a safe, dry, properly cooled piace. I say no to that! They are safe and dry and chilly now. Granny kept them in her biscuit tin, and in her biscuit tin they'll stay. Of course anyone who wants to come to see them can visit me here, and I'll let them have a look. Juliet said lots of scholars would probably come, which would be nice for me and Zen.o.bia as we like company.

If you'd like the letters for a book, you can have them, though I hope you will let me write what Juliet calls the preface. I'd like to tell about Granny Pheen, and I have a picture of her and m.u.f.fin by the pump. Juliet told me about royalties: I could buy me a motorcycle with a sidecar-there is a red one, second-hand, down at Lenoux's Garage.

Your friend, Isola Pribby From Juliet to Sidney 18th August 1946 August 1946

Dear Sidney,

Sir William has come and gone. Isola invited me to be present for the inspection, and of course I jumped at the chance. Promptly at nine, Sir William appeared on the kitchen steps; I panicked at the sight of him in his sober black suit-what if Granny Pheen's letters were merely the work of some fanciful farmer? What would Sir William do to us-and you-for wasting his time?

He settled solemnly among Isola's hemlock and hyssop, dusted his fingers with a snowy handkerchief, fitted a little gla.s.s into one eye, and slowly removed the first letter from the biscuit tin. A long silence followed. Isola and I looked at one another. Sir William took another letter from the biscuit tin. Isola and I held our breath. Sir William sighed. We twitched. 'Hmmmm,' he murmured. We nodded at him encouragingly, but it was no good-there was another silence. This one lasted several weeks.

Then he looked at us and nodded.

'Yes?' I said, hardly daring to breathe.