108 INVALIDISM AND ITALY. 



grouse gizzards. F , who arrived the second night, 



nearly cut me out by talking of stewed dotterel. If he 

 could have produced them on the table it would have 

 been all over with me ; but Billy has seen too much of the 

 world not to know that a bird on the plate is worth a 

 million on the moor, and so I still continued lord of the 

 ascendant. However, his friend's yacht was obliged, some 

 days ago, to take her departure for the south, and bore 

 my beautiful Billy from my distracted view. 



" I was very happy (for me) during my stay at Arden- 

 caple. It is a delightful old place, with ' gray monastic 

 towers,' embosomed in wood, built on a peninsula on the 

 banks of a salt-water loch, and backed by fine mountains. 

 They made me feel quite at home, just as I was at Cor- 

 storphine Hill, and were truly kind. I must have been 

 but a tiresome inmate, yet I could not get away on my 

 present cruise without promising to come back. 



" I sincerely hope you are all enjoying yourselves at the 

 Hill, and that your mother is constantly on the wing be- 

 tween the house and the garden, pulling bird-seed, setting 

 her trap, and rearing her callow young, concerning which 

 you never condescend to give me any detail. Is Bunny 

 minor alive, and Bunny major kicking ? Have there been 

 any ants this year on the top of the thistle ? How is your 

 aunt, Miss Keith ? As I scarcely expect to hear again 

 from any of my own family, let me know at once if Eobin 



