d at his request been writing and despatching to
him fair copies of the various sets of verses for the _Child's
Garden_ (as the collection was ultimately called), which he had been
from time to time sending home.

_Chalet la Solitude, Hyeres [April 1883]._

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am one of the lowest of the--but that's understood. I
received the copy, excellently written, with I think only one slip from
first to last. I have struck out two, and added five or six; so they now
number forty-five; when they are fifty, they shall out on the world. I
have not written a letter for a cruel time; I have been, and am, so
busy, drafting a long story (for me, I mean), about a hundred Cornhill
pages, or say about as long as the Donkey book: _Prince Otto_ it is
called, and is, at the present hour, a sore burthen but a hopeful. If I
had him all drafted, I should whistle and sing. But no: then I'll have
to rewrite him; and then there will be the publishers, alas! But some
time or other, I shall whistle and sing, I make no doubt.

I am going to make a fortune, it has not yet begun, for I am not yet
clear of debt; but as soon as I can, I begin upon the fortune. I shall
begin it with a halfpenny, and it shall end with horses and yachts and
all the fun of the fair. This is the first real grey hair in my
character: rapacity has begun to show, the greed of the protuberant
guttler. Well, doubtless, when the hour strikes, we must all guttle and
protube. But it comes hard on one who was always so willow-slender and
as careless as the daisies.

Truly I am in excellent spirits. I have crushed through a financial
crisis; Fanny is much better; I am in excellent health, and work from
four to five hours a day--from one to two above my average, that is; and
we all dwell together and make fortunes in the loveliest house you ever
saw, with a garden like a fairy story, and a view like a classical
landscape.

Little? Well, it is not large. And when you come to see us, you will
probably have to bed at the hotel, which is hard by. But it is Eden,
madam, Eden and Beulah and the Delectable Mountains and Eldorado and the
Hesperidean Isles and Bimini.[3]

We both look forward, my dear friend, with the greatest eagerness to
have you here. It seems it is not to be this season: but I appoint you
with an appointment for next season. You cannot see us else: remember
that. Till my health has grown solid like an oak-tree, till my fortune
begins really