1893 MADEIRA 319 



What a journey you had, poor dears ! It does 

 not seem so certain after all that we should be safe 

 for comfort on a long voyage. Mytsie and Char, had 

 a worse passage than you, the wind was dead against 

 them all the way. 



It is indeed shocking about the Dean. I heard 

 it before you did. I will write to him by this mail. 



So glad you had such a good concert. If you only 

 knew how I was longing to enjoy it with you. . . . 



An adagio movement has now followed the 

 allegro, and I am looking forward to a presto home 

 as a finale. 



My news is not much. My cold was very bad 

 from Saturday to Monday, but I slept most of the 

 time straight on. If it were not for my eyes I should 

 be almost as w r ell as ever I was. 



I read Walter Hobhouse's child story, and Mrs. 



capped it with another. A little girl she knew 



asked whether, when she got to heaven, she might 

 * have a little devil up to play with.' Mytsie's 

 nephew, when three years old, had a much prettier 

 idea. On M. telling him that something had hap- 

 pened before he was born, he said, ' Then that was 

 when I was still in heaven.' < Yes,' answered M., 

 ' but what was heaven like ? ' i Oh, there I played 

 with angels, and there was nothing but Christmas 

 trees.' 



Are not the debates first-rate ? It seems to me 

 I never read so many good speeches as those of 

 Balfour, Bryce, and Chamberlain. But the measure 

 itself is absurd. 



had a party on board the ' Koyal Sovereign ' 



