Please pardon this fresh appeal,—with all thanks for past kindness, and for those delightful letters.
Ever sincerely yours,
Lafcadio Hearn.
TO MRS. WETMORE
Tōkyō, July, 1903.
Dear Mrs. Wetmore,—Your most kind letter is with me,—and I do not know what to say to thank you for the extraordinary interest and trouble that you have taken in my poor case. It is too bad that, having only one Fairy-Sister in the world, I should prove to her such a Torment. Perhaps I may be able to be at some future time a pleasure-giver—I shall pray to all the gods to help me thereunto.
Please do not worry about that Cornell matter: I suppose that President Schurman must have been in great anxiety and trouble when he wrote that letter.
You will be glad to hear that I am now much better than when I last wrote to you, and that I have finished most of the lectures—in rough draft. To polish them for publication will be at least a year’s work, I fear; but I am now able, I think, to give a cultured audience a new idea of Japan, in large outline.
I have to be careful of my health for some time. Perhaps I shall get quite strong by the end of summer. But I am now only allowed to walk in the garden....
I cannot write you a pretty letter: I have tried for two days,—but I feel so stupid.