My dear Mary Hunter. It appears that you wished to give me a book for
Christmas, but were in doubt what book to give me as I seemed to have
little taste for reading, so in your embarrassment you gave me a Bible.
It lies on my table now with the date 1898 on the fly-leaf--my constant
companion and chief literary interest for the last eighteen years.
Itself a literature, it has led me into many various literatures and
into the society of scholars.
I owe so much to your Bible that I cannot let pass the publication of
"The Brook Kerith" without thanking you for it again. Yours always,
George Moore.