_[Chalet am Stein, Davos], 22nd February '82._
MY DEAR CHARLES,--Your most welcome letter has raised clouds of sulphur
from my horizon....
I am glad you have gone back to your music. Life is a poor thing, I am
more and more convinced, without an art, that always waits for us and is
always new. Art and marriage are two very good stand-by's.
In an article which will appear some time in the Cornhill, _Talk and
Talkers_, and where I have full-lengthened the conversation of Bob,
Henley, Jenkin, Simpson, Symonds, and Gosse, I have at the end one
single word about yourself. It may amuse you to see it.
We are coming to Scotland after all, so we shall meet, which pleases me,
and I do believe I am strong enough to stand it this time. My knee is
still quite lame.
My wife is better again.... But we take it by turns; it is the dog that
is ill now.--Ever yours,