ckett"
the least bit. And--Rex is to come home in Spring!--the season of hope
and _nest-building_--and I am trying not to wonder my wits away as to
what part of the British Isles it will be in which I shall lay the
cross-sticks and put in the moss and wool of our next nest!! There is
every reason to suppose we shall be "at home" for five years, I am
thankful to say....

Rex loved Malta, and _hates_ Ceylon. But he has been _very_ good and
patient about it.

Latterly he has consoled himself a good deal with the study of Sanscrit,
which he means me also to acquire, though I have not got far yet! It is
a beautiful character. He says, "Of all the things I have tried Sanscrit
is the most utterly delicious! Of the alphabet alone there are (besides
the ten vowels and thirty-three simple consonants) rather more than two
hundred compound consonants," etc., etc.! He adds, "[Sanskrit: aayi]
are my detached initials, but I could write my whole name in
'Devanagiri,' or 'Writing of the Gods.'"

TO A.E.

_Ecclesfield._ December 8, 1882.

... I got back from Liverpool on Monday. When I called at the Museum
on that morning a Dr. Palmer was there, who said, "I was in Taku Forts
with your husband," and was very friendly. He gave me a prescription
for neuralgia! and sent you his best remembrances.

First and last I have annexed one or two nice "bits of wool for our
nest." For _8s._ (a price for which I could not have bought _the
frame_, a black one with charming old-fashioned gold-beading of this
pattern) [_sketch_] I bought a real fine old soft mezzotint, after Sir
Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Richard Burke. Oh, such a lovely face!
Looking lovelier in powder and lace frill. But a charming thing, with
an old-fashioned stanza in English deploring his early death, and a
motto in Latin. It was a great find, and I carried it home from the
Pawnbroker's in triumph!--

I have got a very nice Irish anecdote for you from Mr. Shee:

Two Irishmen (not much accustomed to fashionable circles) at a big
party, standing near the door. After a long silence:

Paddy I.--"D'ye mix much in society?"

P. II.--"Not more than six tumblers in the evening."

* * * * *

S. John Evangelist, 1882.

* * * * *

C. "dealt" for me for the old Japanese Gentleman (pottery) on whom I
turned my back at L1. He has got him for _15s._ You will be delighted
with him, and I have just packed him