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 AFTERWORD

Dearest Joan:

We are in the midst of a tragic tangle of packing, but our flitting is made much less tragic by the surprising and delightful proceedings of you and Rob. I had barely recovered from the amazement of finding that you knew each other at all! When Garth heard that you were to "belong to us always," he went into a fit of rapture, but he vows he will never remember to call you "Auntie." No, I am not surprised that it is to be so soon. I’m so glad that we’ll all be in town by then, though of course we should have come, even if Silver Shoal had gone unlighted!

You are both quite too good to want us to share the studio apartment this winter, when Jim goes. It would mean the happy tiding over for Garth (and perhaps, who knows, for me) of a very desolate time of readjustment. Garth had been existing in a desperate sort of way, staring at the Ailouros and wandering about aimlessly, weeping in private at intervals. Since the wondrous news arrived, he has taken a quite new point of view. The combination of you 350