Beethoven drove the Colonel out of the house with objurgation.

I think that was uncivil.
There is a time for the septet, and a time for the posthumous quartets.
It is true that if a man called on me now and asked me to write something like The Irrational Knot I should have to exercise great self-control.

But there are people who read Man and Superman, and then tell me (actually to my face) that I have never done anything so good as Cashel Byron's Profession.

After this, there may be a public for even The Irrational Knot; so let it go.
LONDON, _May_ 26, 1905.
[Footnote A: James, having read the above in proof, now protests he never called me a peasant lad: that being a decoration by the sub-editor.

The expression he used was "a poor lad." This is what James calls tact.