Good-bye,—I think you have several souls.
Lafcadio.
TO MRS. FENOLLOSA
Tōkyō, November, 1898.
Dear Mrs. Fenollosa,—I see that my little word “sympathy”—used, of course, in the fine French sense of fellow-feeling in matters not of the common—was as true as I could wish it....
I am the one now to give thanks,—and very earnest thanks; for I confess that I felt a little nervous about your opinion. Independently of the personal quality which makes it so precious for me, I believe that it must represent, in a general way, the opinion of a number of cultured ladies whom I never have seen, and never shall see, but who are much more important as critics than any editors,—for they make opinion, not in newspapers or magazines, but in social circles. And I was a little bit afraid of my new venture in “Retrospectives.” I picked out the little piece sent you, because it had a Japanese subject as a hanging-peg,—so that I thought you and the professor would feel more inclined to take the trouble of reading it....
Well, you are one of my Rewards in this world: I don’t know that I can expect any better return than your letter for a year’s work on a book,—and I certainly do not want anything better. In this particular case too, with a new venture, encouragement is positively a benefit as well as a pleasure. In other cases, it might make me too well satisfied with my work, and tempt me to be careless, or at least less careful....
I see Mr. Edwards has gone; and I am sorry to think that I may never see him again,—for he is in every way a man and a gentleman. Probably we shall have a book from him some day; and it will not be a common book, for that man is incapable of the common: he will think hard, work solidly, and put his own square-set Oxford self into every thought. It will certainly be interesting.
My best thanks for that volume of Watson.... I have a very strong liking for Watson; and there are bits in that book of delightful worth. I shall venture to impose on your good nature by keeping it just a “weeny” bit longer,—to copy a verse or two.
I sprained my foot nearly two weeks ago, and after a week in bed and bandages, managed to hobble around the university again, but I am now all over the main trouble. Tōkyō roads are dangerous after dark sometimes. The enforced homeing, however, did me good; for my next book is almost ready for the publisher.