XXIII
Nesta Rossiter to Richard Haven
Dear “Uncle” Richard.—The news here is good, I think, were it not that Aunt Verena has great difficulty in sleeping. She worries a good deal over her inactivity, and her burdensomeness (as she calls it) to others. She does not want to take drugs, nor do the doctors recommend them if they can be avoided. Our nurse is very good and attentive, but not much of a companion in the small hours. Have you any suggestions?—I am, yours sincerely,
Nesta Rossiter
XXIV
Richard Haven to Verena Raby
My Dear, I’m sorry about your sleeping so badly. All I can do is to pass on to you my own remedy, which is to repeat poetry to myself. It is better than counting sheep and all that kind of thing.
“But suppose I don’t know any poetry?”
Well, of course, you do; but there is no harm in learning more, and especially so if, in order not to tire you in the wrong way, it is all very short, never more than eight lines. The epigrammatic things that are like miniatures in painting. What do you think of that? Here is a quatrain that touches immediately on your case:—