Page:Letters from India Vol 2.pdf/113



At the least possible distance that picture is very like you—exactly like, most of us think. Near, there is certainly something slightly absurd. in the colouring of that man’s drawings. It is Fleet-Streetish, but yet the likenesses are very remarkable; and, sitting as I am at this table, with your picture on that table close by the wall, it is really a most refreshing sight. It might be you, only it is not. The pleasure with which I have torn up that horrid crooked vulgar thing he did at first is great. I never dared look much at it, as I am not likely to have my impression of you corrected by yourself for some years; but this other is really satisfactory, and I only hope the white ants will not nibble all round it as they have round Mr. ’s. The degree of destructiveness of this climate it is impossible to calculate, but there is something ingenious in the manner in which the climate and the insects contrive to divide the work. One cracks the bindings of the books, the other eats up the inside; the damp turns the satin gown itself