And do you know what? He turned out to be a close friend - indeed, the close and intimate friend, of -' 'I do hope, Guy, that you have not issued these gentlemen with one of your invitations to dine here,' interrupted Lady Esher again, hoping to stave off the name of the intimate friend. Could it be that Beardy, or Beardsley, or whatever he called himself? Surely not that awful Wilde man …
