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Your letter from South Africa5 got to
Paris in record time and caught me just a few days before Miss Lewis6 and I sail for home4. It seemed miraculous that a letter
could come so far and get here on October 21st! I want to leave this little
word, so that you will know that you it did
reach me and it was such a happy surprise for both Edith and me. I wish I
had been one of your jolly mining party, although my experience of caves in
the Southwest7, and the underground
prisons of Paris has make made me dread all
sub-terranean explorations. I like to be on
top of the earth.
How in the name of all queer chances did you ever come upon Lucy Gayheart8 on the other side of the world! I meant to send it to you when you got back, but it never occured to me that bookpost could catch up with you in Australia9 or New Zealand10.
Edith and I are busy getting some warm clothes for the boat, and preparing to
slip away without saying goodbye to Isabelle11, as she has requested us to do. It’s very hard to
go when I know how ill she is, and yet I feel that I can not stay longer. I
must get home and begin to pull my life together again. Marutha12 will understand that. Lving
Living without
without work and without any particular purpose for so long has made me
feel, not like the boy who lost his shadow, but b like the shadow which lost the boy! That is more serious you
know.
This short note is to greet you one and all13 when you reach Paris. If I were here then, I
would give all five of you a hug as strong as a Russian bear’s. I expect you
have all grown very much, even Marutha
Marutha has grown in pounds, I hope. (Excuse
hotel pen.) I wish I could be here to hear Yehudi’s first European recital
after all the changes of thought and feeling that such a great experience
must bring.