Sir Frank Lockwood said he would take the circumstances in chronological order, and the case for the prosecution was opened by calling on the witness Edward Shelley, the young man who was employed by the Bodley Head publishers. Shelley repeated his story of the beginning and progress of his intimacy with Oscar. It began in 1891; in March, 1893, they quarrelled, and witness wrote to Wilde that he would not see him again. He spoke of impropriety. "I was entrapped. He knew I admired him very much; and he took advantage of me—of my admiration, and of—I won't say innocence—I don't know what to call it." These are some of the letters which Shelley wrote to Oscar:—

Sunday Evening, February 21, 1892.—Dear Mr. Oscar Wilde,—I must again thank you for "The House of Pomegranates" [a book of stories which the witness parenthetically explained were "not fit for children"] and the theatre ticket. It was very good of you to send them to me, and I shall never forget your kindness. What a triumph was yours last night [the first night of "Lady Windermere's Fan."] The play is the best I have seen on the stage, with such beauty of form and wit that it adds a new phase of pleasure to existence. Could Lady Blessington live anew, the conversations would make her jealous. George Meredith might have signed it. How miserably poor everything seems beside it! Except, of course, your books. But then your books are part of yourself.