"Dear Isaacson,

"Here at last is a letter, the first I've sat down to write to you
since the note telling you of my marriage. I had your kind letter
in answer, and showed it to Ruby, who was as pleased with it as I
was. She liked you from the first, and I think has always wished to
know you better since you went to cheer her up in her London
solitude. Some day I suppose she will have the chance, but now we
are on the eve of cutting ourselves off from every one and giving
ourselves up to the Nile. You are surprised, perhaps? You thought I
should be hard at it in the Fayyum, looking after my brown fellows?
Well, I'm as keen as ever on the work there, and if you could have
seen me not many days ago, nearly up to my knees in mud, and as
oily and black as a stoker, you'd know it. My wife was in the
Fayyum with me, and has been roughing it like a regular Spartan.
She packed off her French maid so as to be quite free, and has been
living under the tent, riding camels, feeding anyhow, and, in
short, getting a real taste of the nomad's life in the wilds. She
cottoned to it like anything, although no doubt she missed her
comforts now and then. But she never complained, she's looking
simply splendid--years younger than she did when you saw her in
London--and won't hear of having another maid, though now she might
quite well get one. For I felt I oughtn't to keep her too long in
the wilds just at first, although she was quite willing to stay,
and didn't want to take me away from my work. I knew she was
naturally anxious to see something of the wonders of Egypt, and the
end of it was that we decided to take a dahabeeyah trip on the
Nile, and are on the eve of starting. You should see our boat, the
_Loulia_! she's a perfect beauty, and, apart from a few absurd
details which I haven't the time to describe, would delight you.
The bedrooms are Paris, but the sitting-rooms are like rooms in an
Eastern house. You'll say Paris and the East don't go together.
Granted! But it's very jolly to be romantic by day and soused in
modern comfort at night. Now isn't it? Especially after the Fayyum.
And we've actually got a fountain on board, to say nothing of
prayer rugs by the dozen which beat any I've seen in the bazaars of
Cairo. For we haven't hired from Cook, but from a