ade in canoes and was full of incident. Descending the
great Golliwog Falls Mr. Roosevelt's canoe was smashed to atoms, but the
ex-President escaped with only slight injury to his eyeglasses, after a
desperate conflict with a pliocene crocodile. The Encyclopaedia River, as
described by Mr. Roosevelt, resembles the Volga, the Hoang-ho and the
Mississippi; but it is richer in snags and of a deeper and more luscious
purple than any of them. Near its junction with the Mandragora it runs
uphill for several miles, with the result that the canoes were
constantly capsizing. The waters of Mandragora are of a curiously
soporific character, while those of the River Madeira have a toxic
quality which renders them dangerous when drunk in large quantities.

Mr. Roosevelt, it may be added, is shortly expected in London, when he
will lecture before the Royal Geographical Society, Master Anthony
Asquith having kindly consented to preside.

* * * * *

TO MY HUSBAND'S BANKER.

Florence, _May 2nd_.

Dear Mr. S.,--We have been here a week, and I feel I really must write
and thank you for what I can see is going to be the most lovely holiday.

It was ripping of you to let us come--for _sending_ us, in fact. I can't
think why more people don't do it--I mean travel when they can't afford
it. Perhaps it is that all bankers aren't so good-natured as you are. I
shall tell all my friends to come to you in future. Of course I shall
only recommend the conscientious ones. _We_ are being frightfully
conscientious. For instance, when we arrived we purposely didn't go to a
hotel some friends of ours were at because it was two francs a day
dearer than one we found in _Baedeker_--though as I told Fred I don't
believe you'd have grudged us the two francs a bit. The only thing I
have on my conscience a little is that in Paris, where we stayed three
days on our way out, we _did_ go to rather good restaurants. But I had
never been to Paris before, and I thought, when you knew that, you would
quite approve, because first impressions are everything, aren't they? It
is rather as if you were an invisible host everywhere we go. "Of course
you will have a liqueur with your coffee, Mrs. Merrison?" I hear you say
after dinner; and really, Grand Marnier (_cordon jaune_) _is_ heavenly,
isn't it?

Then we came on here, and, do you know, "The Birth of Venus" nearly made
me cry when I first saw it, it's so beautiful. I shall never for