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consolation owing to the delay in receiving letters from a distance. It is the hope that the evil tidings, which they bring, may have had time to give place to good tidings before their answer is received ; and by this time I expect you have got over your illness. I am sure you need rest and change, and this was why I had been hoping that you would have been able to spend your summer vacation in Europe.

I quite understand why it was not possible for you to accept my invitation, and what a great sacrifice it was for you. There are times when one has to be utterly reckless ; but it seems to the, that, for you, those times never come to their end. However, it makes me eager to come to your rescue and lure you away from your work an drag you into the delicious depths of neglectfulnmess of duty.

I am myself dreaming of such a glorious opportunity ; and when it does come, you may be sure that I shall claim your companionship in my path of idleness, strewn with unanswered letters, forgotten engagements and books with uncut pages. But we are fast getting into the vicious habit of keeping ourselves busy. Before long, we shall lose all taste for leisure, for refinements of laziness.

Perhaps a day will come, when I shall pine for doing my duty, and my pious example will be quoted in text books on which I shall have to pass my examination in my next birth! Please know that I am serious! I am afraid of trampling down the