Affectionately
John Denton
July 6th
From a Rose-grey
Bower
July 7th
To you—
A Maker of Songs:
With your Lyric Hour close beside me, and a picture of you in my imagination, I can feel little hesitancy in writing to tell you, as best I can, all that your poems have meant to me. I am, briefly, a "shut-in," in whose whole limited life books must necessarily play a greater part than in the active world of the well person.
Not long since, through Mr. John Denton, your verses came to me. Straight into my hands they came, and from there into my heart. They are singing there now. And for this, my little note carries you real gratitude. It must go to you, however, without name or sign. I'd rather that you stayed a little "unreal." For when names and addresses begin to play their part, then convention steps in to lay forbidding hands on the lips of friendly impulse,—even here in my castle, from which the outside world is almost banished, and which I shall never leave.
Thank you more than I can say for the loveliness of your songs.
Very sincerely yours,
One Distant Reader
New York City
July 12th
Dear Stranger-Lady: