quite as well in future to
send me half the quantity in half the time, if you really find you
cannot write me oftener. As I was married on December 8, 1874, to
Mrs. Meech's sister, that lady, Mrs. Gilmour, had the great
pleasure of reading your earnest, long, and reiterated warning to
me not to have her. Your warning came too late. Had you posted your
letter on May 12, 1873, it might have been in time, as the first
letter that opened our acquaintance was written in January 1874. If
nothing else will have effect with you, perhaps the thought that
you might have saved me from the fate of having an English wife may
have some effect in moving you to post your letters early, even
though they should not be so long and full.

'About my wife: as I want you to know her, I introduce you to her.
She is a jolly girl, as much, perhaps more, of a Christian and a
Christian missionary than I am. I don't know whether I told you how
it came about. I proposed first to a Scotch girl, but found I was
too late; I then put myself and the direction of this affair--I
mean the finding of a wife--into God's hands, asking Him to look me
out one, a good one too, and very soon I found myself in a position
to propose to Miss Prankard with all reasonable evidence that she
was the right sort of girl, and with some hope that she would not
disdain the offer. We had never seen each other, and had never
corresponded, but she had heard much about me from people in
England who knew me, and I had heard a good deal of her and seen
her letters written to her sister and to her sister's husband. The
first letter I wrote her was to propose, and the first letter she
wrote me was to accept--romantic enough!

'I proposed in January, went up to Mongolia in spring, rode about
on my camels till July, and came down to Kalgan to find that I was
an accepted man! I went to Tientsin to meet her; we arrived here on
Thursday, and were married on Tuesday morning. We had a quiet week,
then I went to the country on a nine days' tour, and came back two
days before Christmas. We have been at home ever since. Such is the
romance of a matter-of-fact man.

'You will see that the whole thing was gone about simply on the
faith principle, and from its success I am inclined to think more
and more highly of th