12                               Miriam J. Benkovitz

Eddie Monteith so that Firbank's disparagement of Evan Morgan
and the intended retaliation for his behaviour in the matter of the
dedication of The Princess Zoubaroff lost its sting. The entire
character might well have been omitted from The Flower Beneath
the Foot; Eddie Monteith has no artistic necessity. But by the time
Grant Richards comprehended the danger in Heaven Organ, the
book was near publication. The best and least costly procedure
was to reprint the offending pages with the substituted name and
reschedule publication. As soon as he had Richards's warning,
Firbank knew that was the only solution, and he had already ac¬
cepted the situation and determined to make the best of it when,
on 8 November 1922, he wrote to Carl Van Vechten that The
Flower, "timed for early New Year," would "race the first white
lilac."