o hear
of as going on. What could have put it into my head even to think
otherwise? Well, more unlikely things might have happened--even with
Medes and Persians. I do not think you will be offended at my vain
surmises.

I see my poor little Aconites--'New Year's Gifts'--still surviving in the
Garden-plot before my window; 'still surviving,' I say, because of their
having been out for near a month agone. I believe that Messrs. Daffodil,
Crocus and Snowdrop are putting in appearance above ground: but (old
Coward) I have not put my own old Nose out of doors to look for them.

I read (Eyes permitting) the Correspondence between Goethe and Schiller
(translated) from 1798 to 1806 {231}--extremely interesting to me, though
I do not understand--and generally skip--the more purely AEsthetic Part:
which is the Part of Hamlet, I suppose. But, in other respects, two such
men so freely discussing together their own, and each other's, works
interest me greatly. At Night, we have The Fortunes of Nigel; a little
of it--and not every night: for the reason that I do not wish to eat my
Cake too soon. The last night but one I sent my Reader to see Macbeth
played by a little 'Shakespearian' company at a Lecture Hall here. He
brought me one new Reading--suggested, I doubt not, by himself, from a
remembrance of Macbeth's tyrannical ways: 'Hang out our _Gallows_ on the
outward walls.' Nevertheless, the Boy took great Interest in the Play;
and I like to encourage him in Shakespeare, rather than in the Negro
Melodists.

Such a long Letter as I have written (and, I doubt, ill written) really
calls for Apology from me, busy as you may be with those Proofs. But
still believe me sincerely yours

Though Laird of LITTLEGRANGE.

XCIX.

[_Feb._ 1882.]

MY DEAR LADY:--

The same Post which brought me your very kind Letter, brought me also the
enclosed.

The writer of it--Mr. Schutz Wilson--a _Litterateur general_--I
believe--wrote up Omar Khayyam some years ago, and, I dare say, somewhat
hastened another (and so far as I am concerned) final Edition. Of his
Mr. Terriss I did not know even by name, till Mr. Wilson told me. So now
you can judge and act as you see fit in the matter.

If Terriss and Schutz W. fail in knowing your London 'habitat,' you see
that the former makes amends in proposing to go so far as Cheltenham to
ask advice of you. Our poor dear Donne would have been so glad, and so
busy, in telling what he coul