* From another letter to the friend mentioned in the note appended
to the "Doomed Train."--(Author's Note.)
-------------

"How can you have the answer before I have written it?" I asked.
"You are making a mistake."

"No," he said." In the city from which I come, the replies are
all written at the office, and sent out with the letters themselves.
Your reply is in my bag."

"Let me see it," I said. He took another letter from his wallet
and gave it to me. I opened it, and read, in my own handwriting,
this answer, addressed to you:--

"The spectacles you want can be bought in London. But you will
not be able to use them at once, for they have not been worn for
many years, and they sadly want cleaning. This you will not be
able to do yourself in London, because it is too dark there to see
well, and because your fingers are not small enough to clean them
properly. Bring them here to me, and I will do it for you."

I gave this letter back to the postman. He smiled and nodded at me;
and I then perceived to my astonishment that he wore a camel's-hair
tunic round his waist. I had been on the point of addressing him--
I know not why--as Hermes. But I now saw that he must be John the
Baptist; and in my fright at having spoken with so great a saint,
I awoke!

--London, Jan. 31, 1877