fe is a stern looking woman, but
really very gentle, and she sings hymns all the day long while she
works. She has a very good voice, so that it is sweet to hear her.
Yes; I do play. I have a piano here in the morning-room, and I am
very fond of my music. And, as I have told you, I read a good deal,
too. So there you have all the descriptions and the details. I
liked so much what you told me of the home of your boyhood. When I
saw you, I knew that you were a person who cared for all these
things, even if you were not an artist. What you tell me, too, of
the law-courts and the strange people you see there, and the ugly,
funny side of human life amused me, though it seems to me more
sorrowful than you perhaps feel it. People amuse me very much
sometimes, too; but I have not your eye for their foibles. You draw
them rather as Forain does; I should do it, I suspect, with more
sentimentality. The fruit comes regularly once a week, and punctual
thanks seem inappropriate for what has become an institution. But
you know how grateful I am. And for the weekly _Punch_;--so
_gemuetlich_ and _bien pensant_ and, often, very, very funny, with a
funniness that the Continental papers never give one; their jests
are never the jests of the _bien pensant_. It is the acrid
atmosphere of the cafe they bring, not that of the dinner party,
or, better still, for _Punch_, the picnic. The reviews, too, are
very interesting. Mrs. Talcott reads them a good deal, she who
seldom reads. She says sometimes very acute and amusing things
about politics. My guardian has a horror of politics; but they
rather interest Mrs. Talcott. I know nothing of them; but I do not
think that my guardian would agree with what you say; I think that
she would belong more to your party of freedom and progress. What a
long letter I have written to you! I have never written such a long
one in my life before, except to my guardian.--Sincerely yours,

"Karen Woodruff."

* * * * *

"Les Solitudes,
"April 15th.

"Dear Mr. Jardine,--How very nice to hear that you are coming to
Cornwall for Easter and will be near us--at least Falmouth is quite
near with a motor. It is beautiful country there, too; I have
driven there with my guardian, and it is a beautiful town to see,