Edgar Jepson

“ Its talk is apt to be righteously fierce, and hardly a meeting passes without the floor being strewed with the mangled relics of the reputation of some literary, political or theological idol of the British public. It is composed of poets, artists, novelists, journalists and solicitors; and on that evening I was sitting between two novelists. One of them, Marks, of a sonorous voice and deeply ringing laugh, is known for his admirable prose to every cultivated Englishman. ”

“ But the only way to deal with unreasonable people is to humor their unreasonableness. After all, there is no reason in the world why we shouldn't be friends."
"No, there isn't," she said firmly. "And there is no use in giving uncle the chance of making himself disagreeable." ”

“ When, at midnight, the meeting broke up I came out with Marks, and we walked together towards the Tube station at Piccadilly Circus.
"I should be very pleased if you would not tell Woodfell that I came to the help of his niece and got the bull-roarer from the top of the sycamore for her," said I.
"Has "Woodfell a niece? She doesn't live at No. 19?" said Marks, stopping short and looking at me with a troubled face.
"Yes, she does. Oughtn't she to live at No. 19?" ”

“ Marks was doubtful; the vannus was a winnow-ing-fan, and he thought that there was a good deal to be said for the view of the commentators that mystica meant only "carried in the mysteries." Gibson said a few kind words about the commentators.
Then I said, "What is a bull-roarer?"
"A bull-roarer is a small piece of wood hollowed out with a string attached to it. You whirl it round and it makes a roaring sound. It is used among savages to summon the initiates to the mysteries and to warn women and children and the boys who have not yet been initiated to keep away," said Gibson. ”

“ The other, Gibson, always seems to me anxious to draw from the other members of the society not so much the honest expression of their real opinions on all matters as the most violent possible honest expression of their real opinions.
He and Marks had been talking about the Mysteries, a favorite subject with them, since Marks' novels are mystical and Gibson is interested in comparative religion. Gibson was maintaining that the mystica vannus Iacchi, of which Virgil speaks, was the bull-roarer. ”

“ It was the very next night, at a meeting of the New Bohemians, that I learned about the piece of wood I had brought down from the top of the sycamore. That distinguished society meets on one evening a week at a tavern and smokes and talks ”