just now, but I don't feel quite the right thing without a wig.
Anyhow, I'm having everything my own way just now,--weather, dinner,
news from Joanie and news from Susie, only I don't like her to be so
very, very sad, though it _is_ nice to be missed so tenderly. But
I do hope you will like to think of my getting some joy in old ways
again, and once more exploring old streets and finding forgotten churches.

The sunshine is life and health to me, and I am gaining knowledge
faster than ever I could when I was young.

This is just to say where I am, and that you might know where to
write.

The cathedral here is the grandest in France, and I stay a week at
least.

* * * * *

CHARTRES, _13th September_ (1880)

I must be back in England by the 1st October, and by the 10th shall be
myself ready to start for Brantwood, but may perhaps stay, if Joanie
is not ready, till she can come too. Anyway, I trust very earnestly to
be safe in the shelter of my own woodside by the end of October. I
wonder what you will say of my account of the Five Lovers of Nature[29]
and seclusion in the last _Nineteenth Century_?

I am a little ashamed to find that in spite of my sublimely savage
temperament, I take a good deal more pleasure in Paris than of old,
and am even going back there on Friday for three more days.

We find the people here very amiable, and the French old character
unchanged. The perfect cleanliness and unruffledness of white cap, is
always a marvel, and the market groups exquisite, but our enjoyment of
the fair is subdued by pity for a dutiful dog, who turns a large
wheel (by walking up it inside) the whole afternoon, producing awful
sounds out of a huge grinding organ, of which his wheel and he are the
unfortunate instruments. Him we love, his wheel we hate! and in
general all French musical instruments. I have become quite sure of
one thing on this journey, that the French of to-day have no sense of
harmony, but only of more or less lively tune, and even, for a time,
will be content with any kind of clash or din produced in time.

The Cathedral service is, however, still impressive.

[Footnote 29: Rousseau, Shelley, Byron, Turner, and John Ruskin.]

* * * * *

PARIS, _18th September_, 1880.

What a _very_ sad little letter, and how very naughty of my little
Susie to be sad because there are s