I give up finding out your name in the meantime, and keep to that by
which you will be known—Frederick Locker.
* * * * *
24th September 1886.
MY DEAR LOCKER,—You are simply an angel of light, and your two letters
have gone to the post; I trust they will reach the hearts of the
recipients; at least, that could not be more handsomely expressed. About
the cheque, well now I am going to keep it; but I assure you Mrs. ——
has never asked me for money, and I would not dare to offer any till
she did. For all that I shall stick to the cheque now, and act to that
amount as your almoner. In this way I reward myself for the ambiguity of
my epistolary style. I suppose, if you please, you may say your verses
are thin (would you so describe an arrow, by the way? and one that struck
the gold? It scarce strikes me as exhaustively descriptive), and, thin
or not, they are (and I have found them) inimitably elegant. I thank
you again very sincerely for the generous trouble you have taken in this
matter which was so near my heart, and you may be very certain it will
be the fault of my health and not my inclination, if I do not see you
before very long; for all that has passed has made me in more than the
official sense sincerely yours,