' My dear Friend, ... A stay at the Collegiate is a true enjoy-
ment ; and rest assured that if anything can ever make " Memory's
Waist " less, it will be such *' stays " as these. I hope you are
not feeling the worse for the great trouble and anxiety of the
past week. You have this consolation, that you succeeded most
admirably, and that everybody was as comfortable as if in their
own home. To cater for forty is no slight task. . . . You must
sometimes have wished that they were all (as well as your late
lamented cook) the ''forty thieves" and that you could house
them at night in jars, borrowed from the family oil-man —
and yet, methinks, the harmony that prevailed in the bedrooms
was better than any " Family Jars."

' Dear friend, I hope you know me of old, and that my jesting
does not mean a careless and indifferent spirit ; it is a very happy
thing to meet together, as we so lately met, for it seems to knit
us all more closely together, and to foster goodwill and love on this
dull earth. So let us be thankful and hopeful for the future —
looking forward to many such happy meetings in time to come.
— Believe me always, affectionately yours,

' Alfred Ainoer.
' Tell George, with my love, not to delay, any longer than he
can help, sending me the subjects in which I am to examine. We
shall meet again in some fortnight's time. Hurrah !

' There has at last set in a sweet and effectual rain. Long may
it rain over us.
