126 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



descending a kopje ' less, there is not so much move- 

 ment in them, but the Hghting is good, and I love 

 the ' wildebeests at play.' You need not be told 

 they are made from nature. How do you do it? 

 Do you remember the poses, or do you draw them 

 by bits, as fast as you can put in a leg or a shoulder 

 or a head? I beg your pardon, but I never liked 

 any sketches in my life as I liked those. I love draw- 

 ing more than anything else, I think, and next to 

 it — ^travelling, everything related to travelling, 

 movement, that is why they appealled so to me. 

 I never heard of a life which seemed to me to ap- 

 proach more the ideal than the one you must have 

 lead in Africa — sketching, beauty, breadth, wild- 

 ness, movement, danger perhaps, all that together. 

 Then I looked at your portrait; somehow the face, 

 as much as the sketches, made me write ; and then 

 a man who can draw and loves to draw as you do, 

 is a naturalist, has been in the desert, and is the 

 son of such a man as your father was cant be a 

 bad man. And when I think of it the worst you 

 can do to me is to forget my letter, and as you dont 

 know me, it is not an offence, so why should I not 

 try? Will you bye a wood for 4000 pound (in the 

 gouvernment of Kowno) which is worth much more ? 

 We must sell it before the l5^ of August, that is 

 13th new style, otherwise we will be completely 

 ruined, it is the reason we sell it so cheaply. That 

 is not an appeal to your pity — because if you dont 

 bye it, I daresay somebody else will — but I am a 

 girl so I cant do anything, you can imagine the 

 pleasant position feeling that there is work to be 

 done, that one must ' agir,' that you cant do it 

 because you are a girl and not a man. So when I 



