Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise had evidently settled the difficulty in the most humane spirit.
Later still I was told that Oscar had begun to write "De Profundis" in prison, and I was very hopeful about that too: no news could have given me greater pleasure.

It seemed to me certain that he would justify himself to men by turning the punishment into a stepping-stone.

And in this belief when the time came I ventured to call on Sir Ruggles Brise with another petition.
"Surely," I said, "Oscar will not be imprisoned for the full term; surely four or five months for good conduct will be remitted ?" Sir Ruggles Brise listened sympathetically, but warned me at once that any remission was exceptional; however, he would let me know what could be done, if I would call again in a week.

Much to my surprise, he did not seem certain even about the good conduct.
I returned at the end of the week, and had another long talk with him.
He told me that good conduct meant, in prison parlance, absence of punishment, and Oscar had been punished pretty often.

Of course his offenses were minor offenses; nothing serious; childish faults indeed for the most part: he was often talking, and he was often late in the morning; his cell was not kept so well as it might be, and so forth; peccadilloes, all; yet a certificate of "good conduct" depended on such trifling observances.