Continued at Clouds. Oc: 17: 1885 My darling, / I was so glad to have / your letter of this day week - and such / a funny thing happened the day before / it came: I had an envelope addressed / apparently, in your handwriting, & / on the flap was a beautifully / printed, large "MARY" - so that I / opened it with certainty that it / was from you - and lo, it was from / Lady Ponsonby! But how she came / to write so like you is a wonder / to me, since I had a letter from / her some weeks ago which did / not remind me of you at all - / however, the funny thing was that / the next day came your own / real letter, though I would not be- / lieve in it till it was opened. / Thankyou for the photographs, which / have some likeness to you - but if they / tell true you are thinner than / you should be. Baby looks splen- / did; rather vampirish / in fact, when one looks at his / thin young mother but still, a / bonny vampire. - Yesterday we / had one of those extraordinary "out / of space and out of time" days, / which might have been in the / height of Summer for its sunny / beauty - and in the afternoon I / walked to see Mrs. Holman Hunt / in Fulham, but got well saddened / for my pains by seeing the ruin / of all the fields & nursery gardens / and nice old houses that used to / lie on that road. I have heard the / cuckoo where now "6 substantially (?) / built shops" that their owner has / not been able to finish, are offering / their shabby selves for sale; and / not all the houses run up in the / two miles of road are worth one / cabbage cut from the fields they have / destroyed. But it was funny enough / that the force of contrast is so great / that I was a little comforted on my re- / turn by re-entering a rather fine / medieval neighbourhood that turned / out to be West Kensington; nothing / will better describe to you the hor- / rors of New Fulham. The Hunts / have got one of the few, if not the / only remaining old house, and it / is like a nice dream to open their / garden gate and go in and a / nasty dream to open it and come / out. - I have lived quite long enough / not to expect today to be fine because / yesterday was, and so was prepared / for a particularly wet, misty / morning when it came. - Clouds. Nov: 1st. Is the / the beginning of this simply as / a sign that I was thinking of / you and trying to write before / coming here: now I'll begin again! / Margaret & I came here last Mon- / day; and found all well except the / colds which everyone has everywhere / just now. It feels strange in a way / to see them all in the new house, / but already they are settling into / it, and it is beginning to be home, / It is much larger than I thought / from when we saw it unfinished / and the hall I think is extraor- / dinarily beautiful. I have not yet / registered all the details of the / plan of the whole building, & / keep discovering new rooms, in- / side and windows outside. Your / Mother is very busy, naturally, but always with that dear air / of being at liberty for her friends / which is one of her charms. / We have had beautiful weather / 5 days out of 7, which is more / than could be expected. It is / afternoon now, and they have / all gone for a walk, but I / wanted to stay in and have a / [on Clouds headed notepaper] quiet hour. I wonder if you ever / get such a thing? - I was very / glad to see from your letter that / my sudden impulse to share with / you what I was thinking of, when I / told you the Blake verse, had / been quite understood by you. If one / stops to think of it one is often / afraid to offer one's inmost thoughts / to anyone - but I did not stop / that time. The Matthew Arnold / verses are very sweet, and put / very forcibly the idea that haunts / us all at times - of union, of / unity, or whatever it should be / called - I did not know them. / It is strange how sometimes the / feeling of being an island, as sep- / arations as dividing seas can / make one, is uppermost - and at / others, the consistent feeling pre- / vails, and one is desolate for want / of joining on to other parts of / the complete world. It is good / to know that others feel it also. / Tuesday. Yes, indeed, it was Tuesday / when I wrote that, but now it is Thurs- / day! Tomorrow we go back to London, / and I must post to you from here. / It has been nice to get news of / you through your letters to Mad / eline (such a pretty one) and this / morning to your Mother. The news / of the "Angel" are most satisfac- / tory. I am so glad you are not able / to find in your heart to spare him / for a visit here alone - it shews how / he has fastened his small self into / your heart. - Yesterday we went to / Fonthill, intending to pay a call / upon the inhabitants of the house [Alfred and Mabel Morrison] - / but they were out. This misfortune / I bore up under, as I had nothing / to do with the affair except to / enjoy the drive there and back - / indeed I'm ashamed to say I was / glad, personally. It was a heavenly / afternoon of golden sunshine, so that / we went outside omnibus, though / glad to return inside. We stopped on / the way back and got out to see a / ruined house, which was rather mis- / erable, for it had never been big enough / to make its ruins look fine - only squal- / id - and one felt so sorry for the / destruction of what must have been / somebody's lovely home. Also we look- / ed at a church much less than the / house, which had unhappily been "res- / tored" to a state even more depressing / than the neighbouring house, where / the fowls were roosting! This morn- / ing is a strange one, of alternate / radiant sun and pelting rain, & / even hail. The landscape looks fine / under it - for one sees the brewing / and the bursting of each little storm / as it rises, and how it begins to be / fine again over the distance before / we have quite done with our downpour / This East drawing room in which / we are sitting is a trap for sunbeams / and will be a perfect morning room! / I have had the room above it, which I / believe is yours, with a delightful little / East window through which the sun rises / upon the bed in a slanting way, & / it is pleasant to sit up and read a little / with the lightness over one's shoulder. The / hall proves to be beautiful for music which / is an additional charm, and I think your / Father is very much please at it. How / well Madeline & Pamela have got on with / their piano-playing, Pamela has remark- / able brilliancy already, trickling the drops / of notes off the tips of her fingers like / water. - now I shall send this very / jolting letter, because it won't be / worth sending at all if I keep it longer. / Write to me only when the spirit is upon / you - I shall not wait for a letter from / you before I write again if I have anything / to say. My dear love to you, now / and always. Often I think of you when / I don't see you, and ? as you well / know, ever your most loving / Georgie