LETTER FROM HIS FATHER. 139 



these indispensable excursions, for which, to 

 be within bounds, I allow a month at least, 

 it is as clear as daylight that regular work 

 must be set aside, if, indeed, the time be not 

 wholly lost. Now, for Heaven's sake, what 

 will you do, or rather what shall we do, with 

 your painter, in this interval employed by you 

 elsewhere. Neither is this all. Though the 

 date of Cecile's marriage is not fixed, it is 

 more than likely to take place in January, 

 so that you will be here for the wedding. If 

 you will recollect the overturning of the pa- 

 ternal mansion when your outfit was prepar- 

 ing for Bienne, Zurich, and other places, you 

 can form an idea of the state of our rooms 

 above and below, large and small, when the 

 work of the trousseau begins. Where, in 

 Heaven's name, will you stow away a painter 

 and an assistant in the midst of half a brigade 

 of dress-makers, seamstresses, lace-makers, and 

 milliners, without counting the accompanying 

 train of friends ? Where would you, or where 

 could you, put under shelter your possessions 

 (I dare not undertake to enumerate them), 

 among all the taffetas and brocades, linens, 

 muslin, tulles, laces, etc. ? But what am I say- 

 ing? I doubt if these names are still in ex- 

 istence, for quite other appellations are sound- 



