usand.

"Well, this is only a line to thank you for your sweet little letter. I
have Marjory's too, and shall write her soon. Love,

"LAFCADIO.

"Excuse eyes.

"P.S.--I reopened this letter to add a few lines on second thought.

"You wrote in your last about Sir F. Ball. His expression of pleasure
about my books may have been merely politeness to a pretty lady,--my
sweet little sister. But it may have been genuine--probably was partly
so. He could very easily say a good word for me to the Editors of the
great Reviews,--the _Fortnightly_, _Nineteenth Century_, etc.--though I
am not sure whether his influence would weigh with them very greatly.

"At all events what I need is 'a friend at Court,'--and need badly.
Perhaps, perhaps only, my little sis could help me in that direction. I
think I might ask you,--when possible, to try. The help an earnest man
wants isn't money: it is opportunity.

"We have a cozy little home in Kobe, and Kobe is pretty, but I fear I
shall have to leave it by the time this reaches you. Therefore perhaps
it will be better to address me: 'c/o James E. Beale, _Japan Daily
Mail_, Yokohama, Japan.' I shall soon send Kajiwo's last photo with some
more fairy tales written by myself for your 'bairns.'

"Love to you,
"L. H."

As Lafcadio Hearn's biographer, I almost shrink from saying that this
was the last letter of the series written to his sister, Mrs. Atkinson.
It somehow was so satisfactory to think of the exile having resumed
intercourse with his own people, and with his native land; but with
however deep a feeling of regret, the fact must be acknowledged that he
suddenly put an end to the intercourse for some unaccountable reason. He
not only never wrote again, but returned her envelope, empty of its
contents, without a line of explanation. Mrs. Atkinson has puzzled over
the enigma many times, but has never been able to fathom the reason for
such an action on the part of her eccentric half-brother. There was
nothing, she declares, in her letter to wound even his irritable nerves.
At one time she thought it might have been in consequence of the
attempts of various other members of the family to open a correspondence
with him; he reiterated several times to Mrs. Atkinson the statement
that "one sister was enough." I, on the ot