. Dr. Murgatroyd
from Pontyffynon looked in here the other day, to ask about
your return. He seemed almost to grudge me my restored sight
because I had got it from other people's advice. Said _he_
could have advised an operation only he never believed my
heart would stand it. When I told him they had mixed the
anaesthetic with oxygen he became quite angry--and exclaimed
against these new-fangled notions. But I must not use up my
new found energy writing about him. I want to finish my
letter in a business-like fashion so that you may know all
that is necessary to be known about yourself and your
position. You may have at any moment to answer questions
before you get called to the Bar, and with your defective
memory--I am glad to hear things in the past are becoming
clearer to you--I am sure with God's grace you will wholly
recover soon from the effects of your wound and your
illness--What was I writing? I meant to say that you ought
to know the main facts about your family and your position.

I was an only son. Your grandfather was a prosperous farmer
and auctioneer. You have distant cousins, Vaughans and
Williamses, and some others living at Shrewsbury named
Price. I have written to none of them about your return
because they never evinced any interest in me or my
concerns. Your mother's people, her Vavasour relations at
Cardiff--did not seem to me to be very respectable, though
her father was a well-educated man for his position. He
died--I heard--in a mine accident.

I am not poorly off for a Welsh clergyman. My mother--a
Price of Ystrwy--wanted me to go into the Church and
prevailed on your grandfather to send me first to Malvern
and next to Cambridge. It was at Cambridge that I met your
comrade's father--Sam Gardner, I mean. He was rather wild in
his college days and to tell you the truth, I never cared to
keep up with him much--he had such very rowdy friends. My
mother died while I was at Cambridge and in his later years
your grandfather married again--his housekeeper--and rather
muddled his affairs, because at one time he was quite well
off.

After I was ordained he purchased for me the advowson of
this living. All that came to me from his estate, however,
was a sum of about eleven thousand pounds. This used to