The Black Prince

For the crime of publication I blame the self-styled Mr Loxias (or ‘Luxius’ as I believe he sometimes calls himself). As several newspapers have hinted, this is a nom de guerre of a fellow-prisoner upon whom the unfortunate B.P. seems to have become distressingly fixated. The name conceals the identity of a notorious rapist and murderer, a well-known musical virtuoso, whose murder, by a peculiarly horrible method, of a successful fellow-musician made the headlines some considerable time ago. Possibly the similarity of their crime drew these two unhappy men together. Artists are notoriously an envious race.

(Black Prince. Bradley Pearson.

And she came straight to you?’
‘I suppose so. She arrived pretty soon after Arnold—’
‘And what did she say?’
‘Do stop looking like King Lear—’
‘What did she say?