pa.

There, Colvin, I did it this time. Huge success. The proprietaires were
scattered like chaff. If it had not been the agent, may Israel now say,
if it had not been the agent who was on our side! But I made the agent
march! I threatened law; I was Immense--what do I say?--Immeasurable.
The agent, however, behaved well and is a fairly honest little
one-eared, white-eyed tom-cat of an opera-going gold-hunter. The
proprietaire _non est inventa_; we countermarched her, got in valuators;
and in place of a hundred francs in her pocket, she got nothing, and I
paid _one_ silver biscuit! It _might_ go further but I am convinced will
not, and anyway, I fear not the consequences.

The weather is incredible; my heart sings; my health satisfies even my
wife. I did jolly well right to come after all and she now admits it.
For she broke down as I knew she would, and I from here, without passing
a night at the Defli, though with a cruel effusion of coach-hires, took
up the wondrous tale and steered the ship through. I now sit crowned
with laurel and literally exulting in kudos. The affair has been better
managed than our two last winterings,--I am yours,

BRABAZON DRUM.

TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM

The verses referred to in the following are those of the _Child's
Garden_.

[_Nice, February 1883._]

MY DEAR CUMMY,--You must think, and quite justly, that I am one of the
meanest rogues in creation. But though I do not write (which is a thing
I hate), it by no means follows that people are out of my mind. It is
natural that I should always think more or less about you, and still
more natural that I should think of you when I went back to Nice. But
the real reason why you have been more in my mind than usual is because
of some little verses that I have been writing, and that I mean to make
a book of; and the real reason of this letter (although I ought to have
written to you anyway) is that I have just seen that the book in
question must be dedicated to

ALISON CUNNINGHAM,

the only person who will really understand it, I don't know when it may
be ready, for it has to be illustrated, but I hope in the meantime you
may like the idea of what is to be; and when the time comes, I shall try
to make the dedication as pretty as I can make it. Of course, this is
only a flourish, like taking off one's hat; but still, a person who has
taken the trouble to write things does not dedicate them to any one
without meaning