Sep: 18: 1885 My darling, / I had your hap- / py note from Belgrave Sqre. / a week ago, and since then, as you know, have seen George / and rejoiced with them all. / He looks wonderfully well / and vigorous, and his talk / is delightful; it was really / a new chapter in the story / to see him and Edward / suggested in conversation the / other evening - one can't / get used all at once to see / leaps and jumps in growth / that the younger generation / takes. - The picture you give / of your younger gen- / eration in its tub is lovely! I see / the "pursed lips and sparkling / eyes" - they do feel so brave, / unless the least thing frightens / them. Every day now he will / have some pretty growth to / charm you with. - / I think I'm settled in London / again now - but all our plans / have so been made hay of / this Autumn that I never / reckon surely even on no plan. / Margaret is going this af- / ternoon to spend a few days / with Mary Muir, at Holland / Park - not far away., & so / we do not mind. We can't / get her quite up to the mark / yet, and I have still to keep a / lynx's eye upon her. Phil / is at Rottingdean all by him- / self - but, like Guilp's dog, / who lived on one side of the way / but was generally found on / other, I feel that he may re- / turn at any moment. - / We have good news of Mr. / Ruskin nearly everyday - he is / out and about again, but, may / not write or read anything worth / mentioning - he asked for a letter / from Margaret though / the other day, which was a / great joy to her. - / Don't you know how beautiful / things once read or heard some- / times get pushed to the back of / one's mind as it were , and then / suddenly come to light when one / is groping after something else? Just now, as I sat sewing, there / came back to me some lines of / Blake's - I wonder if you know / them. They are of the allegorical / mystical kind which my soul / loves, and mean I suppose broadly / the 'beginning of all good things' / "I give you the end of a golden string, / Only wind it up into a ball - / It will lead you in at heaven's gate / Built in Jerusalem's wall." / I have often thought of the help one gets / from other souls, past and present, / under the image of a rope thrown to / one in the water - but the golden / string which one can wind up to / such good purpose is more beau- / tiful. Farewell - dear "child" / still in some ways, to my mind / and heart. I am ever / your loving / Georgie