This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."


SET IN SILVER

I

AUDRIE BRENDON TO HER MOTHER
AT CHAMPEL-LES-BAINS, SWITZERLAND

Rue Chapeau de Marie Antoinette,

Versailles,

July 4th

Darling Little French Mother: Things have happened. Fire-crackers! Roman candles! rockets! But don't be frightened. They're all in my head. Nevertheless I haven't had such a Fourth of July since I was a small girl in America, and stood on a tin pail with a whole pack of fire-crackers popping away underneath.

Isn't it funny, when you have a lot to tell, it's not half as easy to write a letter as when you've nothing at all to say, and must make up for lack of matter by weaving phrases? Now, when I'm suffering from a determination of too many words to my pen, they all run together in a torrent, and I don't know how to make them dribble singly to a beginning.