equal to Charles for sound sense and business ability; that
everything with which he has to do goes right; he is always calm,
never in a hurry, and never betrayed into imprudence. This I can
well believe. As you know, Jim asked him a month ago in much
excitement for advice about Fordham, who owed him 200 pounds. Jim
had heard there was something wrong. Charles put the letter in the
desk and did not mention it to me again till a week afterwards, when
he asked me to tell Jim the next time I wrote to Blackdeep that he
need not worry himself, as Fordham was quite safe. It is certainly
a comfort to a woman that her husband is a strong man and that he is
much respected by his employers. Of what have I to complain? O
mother, life here is so dull! This is not the right word; it is
common, but if you can fill it up with my meaning, there is no
better. It will then be terrible. There is hardly a flower in the
garden, although not a weed is permitted. The sooty laurels
unchanging through winter and summer I hate. Some flowers I am sure
would grow, but Charles does not care for them. Neatness is what he
likes, and if the beds are raked quite smooth, if the grass is
closely shaven and trimmed and not a grain of gravel in the path is
loose, he is content. He cannot endure the least untidiness in the
house. If papers are left lying loosely about, he silently puts
them evenly together. He brings all his office ways into the
dining-room; the pens must never be put aside unwiped and the ink-
bottles must be kept filled to a certain height. We do not get much
sun at any time of day in Homerton, and we face the west. Charles
wishes the blinds to be drawn when it shines, so that it may not
fade the curtains. We have few books excepting Rees's cyclopaedia,
and they are kept in a glazed case. If I look at one I have to put
it back directly I have done with it. I saw this place before I was
married, but it did not look then as it looks now, and I did not