We shall hear in a couple
of days; I can tell him her address, at any rate; then he may write direct
to her, if he cares to."
CHAPTER TEN
TWO LETTERS
Four days elapsed, and then Edmund Murdoch received an answer to his
letter. He had written at length upon various affairs and his friend did no
less.
"No. 6 Melbury Gardens, S.W.
"June 8, 189--.
"Dear Murdoch--Your long screed gave me some pleasure and killed an hour.
You relate the even course of your days since my departure from Cornwall,
and I envy the good health and happy contentment of mind which your note
indicates. I gained no slight benefit from my visit to the West Country,
and it had doubtless carried me bravely through this summer but for an
unfortunate event. A sharp cold, which settled on my chest, has laid me low
for some length of time, though I am now as well again as I shall ever be.
So much for facing the night air in evening dress. Nature has no patience
with our idiotic conventions, and hates alike man's shirt-front and woman's
bare bosom when displayed, as is our imbecile custom, at the most dangerous
hours in the twenty-four. My doctors are for sending me away, and I shall
probably follow their advice presently. But the end is not very far off.
"I rejoice that you have sucked in something of my spirit and are trying to
get at the heart of rocks and sea before you paint them. Men waste so much
time poking about in art galleries, like the blind moles they mostly are,
and forget that Nature's art gallery is open every day at sunrise.
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