h me they are genial, almost brotherly;
but the moment a few of them get together they are like a sort of
jury, with me as the criminal before them. It is an odd situation,
and quite new to me. I am pretty well accustomed to all sorts of
people, from cannibals to Mahatmas, but I'm blessed if I ever struck
such a type as this--so proud, so haughty, so reserved, so distant,
so absolutely fearless, so honourable, so hospitable. Uncle Roger's
head was level when he chose them out as a people to live amongst.
Do you know, Aunt Janet, I can't help feeling that they are very much
like your own Highlanders--only more so. I'm sure of one thing: that
in the end we shall get on capitally together. But it will be a slow
job, and will need a lot of patience. I have a feeling in my bones
that when they know me better they will be very loyal and very true;
and I am not a hair's-breadth afraid of them or anything they shall
or might do. That is, of course, if I live long enough for them to
have time to know me. Anything may happen with such an indomitable,
proud people to whom pride is more than victuals. After all, it only
needs one man out of a crowd to have a wrong idea or to make a
mistake as to one's motive--and there you are. But it will be all
right that way, I am sure. I am come here to stay, as Uncle Roger
wished. And stay I shall even if it has to be in a little bed of my
own beyond the garden--seven feet odd long, and not too narrow--or
else a stone-box of equal proportions in the vaults of St. Sava's
Church across the Creek--the old burial-place of the Vissarions and
other noble people for a good many centuries back . . .

I have been reading over this letter, dear Aunt Janet, and I am
afraid the record is rather an alarming one. But don't you go
building up superstitious horrors or fears on it. Honestly, I am
only joking about death--a thing to which I have been rather prone
for a good many years back. Not in very good taste, I suppose, but
certainly very useful when the old man with the black wings goes
flying about you day and night in strange places, sometimes visible
and at others invisible. But you can always hear wings, especially
in the dark, when you cannot see them. _You_ know that, Aunt Janet,
who come of a race of warriors, and who have special sight behind or