_To the Countess of Jersey._
The "little story" is _The Lesson of the Master_, the opening
scenes of which take place at "Summersoft." Lord Jersey was at this
time Governor of New South Wales.
Hotel de Sienne, Siena.
June 11th [1892].
Dear Lady Jersey,
Your kind letter finds me in a foreign land--the land in the world, I
suppose, least like New South Wales--and gives me very great pleasure.
It is charming to hear your voice so distinctly round so many corners of
the globe. Yes, "Summersoft" _did_ venture in a timorous and hesitating
manner to be an affectionate and yet respectful reminiscence of Osterley
the exquisite--of whose folded and deserted charms I can't bear to
think. But I beg you to believe--as indeed you will have perceived if
you were so good as to look at the little story--that the attempted
resemblance was only a matter of the dear old cubic sofa-cushions and
objects of the same delightful order, and not of the human furniture of
the house. I take the liberty of being, in your absence, so homesick for
Osterley that I can scarcely conceive of the pangs by which you and your
children and Lord Jersey--with your much greater right to indulge in
them--must sometimes be visited. I am delighted, however, to gather from
your letter that you have occupations and interests which drop a kindly
veil over that dreamland. It must indeed, I can imagine, be a
satisfaction to be really lending a hand in such a great young growing
world--doing something in it and with it and for it. May the sense of
all this make the years roll smoothly--till they roll you back into our
ken.... Please give my very friendliest remembrance to Lord Jersey--to
whom I wish--as to all of you--and indeed to myself, that you may serve
your term with an appearance of rapidity. And please believe, dear Lady
Jersey, that when it is over, no one will more heartily rejoice than
yours most faithfully,