looking-glass; no carpet, and a hiatus of three inches between the
floor and the door, but all very clean; and excellent food. I have
not made a bargain yet, but I dare say I shall stay here.

Friday.--I have just received your letter; where it has been
hiding, I can't conceive. To-day is cold and foggy, like a baddish
day in June with you; no colder, if so cold. Still, I did not
venture out, the fog rolls so heavily over the mountain. Well, I
must send off this yarn, which is as interminable as the 'sinnet'
and 'foxes' which I twisted with the mids.



LETTER II



Cape Town, Oct. 3.

I came on shore on a very fine day, but the weather changed, and we
had a fortnight of cold and damp and S.W. wind (equivalent to our
east wind), such as the 'oldest inhabitant' never experienced; and
I have had as bad an attack of bronchitis as ever I remember,
having been in bed till yesterday. I had a very good doctor, half
Italian, half Dane, born at the Cape of Good Hope, and educated at
Edinburgh, named Chiappini. He has a son studying medicine in
London, whose mother is Dutch; such is the mixture of bloods here.

Yesterday, the wind went to the south-east; the blessed sun shone
out, and the weather was lovely at once. The mountain threw off