Dear Aunt Verena,—Mother asks me to write to say that she has got home safely. It is heavenly to have her here again. I am so glad you are getting well. Hazel is going to stay with us a little longer. She has a friend at Lady Sandys’ who is a champion tennis player. He is teaching us to juggle. He can keep four balls in the air at once and lay down and get up with a croquet mallet balanced on his forehead. He is very nice. He calls us his pupils and we are named Apter and Aptest. Cyril is Apter and I am Aptest. Lobbie is to be taught too and her name at present is Apt. Emily comes to us every day. She is now Mrs. Urible and she usually brings vegetables. Hazel’s friend sings too and Hazel plays for him and we all dance. He is teaching us the Highland fling. He says I have light fantastic toes. Hazel is teaching him hesitation which he never knew before. Mother is fatter. She says it is because she has not had us to worry her, but as she has had Lobbie it must be your nice things to eat. It is lovely and enchanting to have her back. I am so glad you are well again.—Your loving
Tony
CLVII
Sinclair Ferguson to Verena Raby
Dear Miss Raby,—I rejoiced to have Mr. Field’s very favourable report—surprisingly favourable—even though it reflects a little on my own want of intuition and skill. But I will not develop that theme, for I too was once young and cleverer than my elders, and yesterday I caught a twenty-one lb. salmon and the divine glow still warms me and makes me tolerant to all men. Seriously, my dear friend, this news of your sudden improvement has relieved me profoundly, for it has been a constant grief to me to see you so helpless and to be able to do so little.
It is as Field’s locum, so far as your own case is concerned, that I shall consider myself when I return, which will be in about three weeks. I wonder if he has left me anything in the place to do? I quite expect to find that old Withers has grown another leg.—I am, yours sincerely,
Sinclair Ferguson
CLVIII
Verena Raby to Sinclair Ferguson
My Dear Doctor,—Thank you for your very kind letter, so very like you. Both Mr. Field and I agree that probably the pressure was something new, a development which could not be foreseen. I would not change my doctor for any one, and though I am delighted to think of him happy in the Highlands catching mammoth fish, I hope he will soon return.