He has helped me a lot with his criticism and advice,
for he is fastidious regarding style. There used to be a time, before
he came along, when I walked in darkness, often beginning sentences
with conjunctions and ending them with adverbs; I have even split
infinitives and gone on my way rejoicing. I am now greatly improved,
though one of the incurable things I shall never eradicate from my
system is a weakness for beginning sentences with 'but.' But if you
observe it, I hope you will kindly pass it over without remark.

Henry often talks to me about construction. 'If you are writing a
book,' he says, 'don't introduce all your characters in the first
chapter. Let them develop gradually.'

Now that is sound advice. It was not, however, for the sake of
construction that I refrained from telling you about The Kid at the
very beginning. I was impelled to silence by the same reason which
kept me from mentioning The Kid to Elizabeth until her box had arrived
and she had settled down. I feel sure you do not want to hear about
The Kid any more than Elizabeth did. It is annoying to read about
children. If they are good they cloy, and if bad they irritate. The
Kid is neither. In any case, it is time she came home now, so she will
have to drop in here. During my servantless period she stayed with
friends--which was a good thing for her digestion and my nervous
system. Now there was no longer any excuse--I mean, it was now time
for her to return.

[Illustration: The Kid.]

She is what you would call a boisterous child, overflowing with
ebullition of spirits, _joie de vivre_, bonhomie, and all those
attributes which cause people possessing them to make a noise. When
she enters a room you always think of those lines, 'the mountains
skipped like rams, and the little hills like young sheep.'

She descended on Henry and me just a year after our marriage. As we
have now been married ten years you will be able to calculate her age
if you are good at arithmetic.

Elizabeth did not disapprove of The Kid. It might have been awkward if
she had. As a matter of fact, they became close companions at sight.
There were certain affinities between them. Elizabeth, for example,
although perhaps not so habitually sticky as The Kid, like her didn't
seem able to remain clean or tidy for longer than half an hour at a
time. Also, Elizabeth believing in Signs, The Kid revered her for her
mysticism--about the only person who ev