y I go by the mail-train, and turn up in Paris or anywhere
else that suits my humour, next morning. So I come back as fresh as a
daisy, and preserve as ruddy a face as though I never leant over a sheet
of paper. When I retire from a literary life I think of setting up as a
Channel pilot.

Pray give my love to Mrs. Cerjat, and tell her that I should like to go
up the Great St. Bernard again, and shall be glad to know if she is open
to another ascent. Old days in Switzerland are ever fresh to me, and
sometimes I walk with you again, after dark, outside the hotel at
Martigny, while Lady Mary Taylour (wasn't it?) sang within very
prettily. Lord, how the time goes! How many years ago!

Affectionately yours.

_Wednesday, Nov. 16th, 1864._[13]

DEAR MADAM,

I have received your letter with great pleasure, and hope to be (as I
have always been at heart) the best of friends with the Jewish people.
The error you point out to me had occurred to me, as most errors do to
most people, when it was too late to correct it. But it will do no harm.
The peculiarities of dress and manner are fused together for the sake of
picturesqueness.

Dear Madam, faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. B. W. Procter.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Saturday, Dec. 31st, 1864._

MY DEAR PROCTER,

I have reserved my acknowledgment of your delightful note (the youngest
note I have had in all this year) until to-day, in order that I might
send, most heartily and affectionately, all seasonable good wishes to
you and to Mrs. Procter, and to those who are nearest and dearest to
you. Take them from an old friend who loves you.

Mamie returns the tender compliments, and Georgina does what the
Americans call "endorse them." Mrs. Lirriper is proud to be so
remembered, and says over and over again "that it's worth twenty times
the trouble she has taken with the narrative, since Barry Cornwall,
Esquire, is pleased to like it."

I got rid of a touch of neuralgia in France (as I always do there), but
I found no old friends in my voyages of discovery on that side, such as
I have left on this.

My dear Procter, ever your affectionate.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] In answer to another letter from the "Jewish lady," in which she
give