_To Arthur Christopher Benson._
The following refers to a manuscript diary of Mr. Benson's and to
the privately printed _Letters and Journals_ of William Cory,
author of _Ionica_.
34 De Vere Gardens, W.
September 25th, 1897.
My dear Arthur,
Send me by all means the Diary to which you so kindly allude--nothing
could give me greater pleasure than to feel I might freely--and yet so
responsibly--handle it. I hope it contains a record of your Hawarden
talk--of which you speak.
I shall be very glad indeed of a talk with you about W. Cory--my
impression of whom, on the book, you deepen--whenever anything so
utterly unlikely as articulate speech between us miraculously comes to
pass.--I am just drawing a long breath from having signed--a few moments
since--a most portentous parchment: the lease of a smallish, charming,
cheap old house in the country--down at Rye--for _21_ years! (One would
think I was _your_ age!) But it is exactly what I want and secretly and
hopelessly coveted (since knowing it) without dreaming it would ever
fall. But it _has_ fallen--and has a beautiful room for you (the "King's
Room"--George II's--who slept there;) together with every promise of
yielding me an indispensable retreat from May to October. I hope you are
not more sorry to take up the load of life that awaits, these days, the
hunch of one's shoulders than _I_ am. You'll ask me what I mean by
"life." Come down to Lamb House and I'll tell you. And open the private
page, my dear Arthur, to yours very eagerly,