For one invitation he had received before, a dozen now poured in; he became a celebrity.
Of course he was still sneered at by many as a mere _poseur_; it still seemed to be all Lombard Street to a china orange that he would be beaten down under the myriad trampling feet of middle-class indifference and disdain.
Some circumstances were in his favour.

Though the artistic movement inaugurated years before by the Pre-Raphaelites was still laughed at and scorned by the many as a craze, a few had stood firm, and slowly the steadfast minority had begun to sway the majority as is often the case in democracies.

Oscar Wilde profited by the victory of these art-loving forerunners.

Here and there among the indifferent public, men were attracted by the artistic view of life and women by the emotional intensity of the new creed.

Oscar Wilde became the prophet of an esoteric cult.