_Manasquan_ (_ahem_!), _New Jersey_, _May_ 28_th_, 1888.
MY DEAR JAMES,—With what a torrent it has come at last! Up to now, what
I like best is the first number of a _London Life_. You have never done
anything better, and I don’t know if perhaps you have ever done anything
so good as the girl’s outburst: tip-top. I have been preaching your
later works in your native land. I had to present the Beltraffio volume
to Low, and it has brought him to his knees; he was _amazed_ at the first
part of Georgina’s Reasons, although (like me) not so well satisfied with
Part II. It is annoying to find the American public as stupid as the
English, but they will waken up in time: I wonder what they will think of
_Two Nations_? . . .
This, dear James, is a valedictory. On June 15th the schooner yacht
_Casco_ will (weather and a jealous providence permitting) steam through
the Golden Gates for Honolulu, Tahiti, the Galapagos, Guayaquil, and—I
hope _not_ the bottom of the Pacific. It will contain your obedient
’umble servant and party. It seems too good to be true, and is a very
good way of getting through the green-sickness of maturity which, with
all its accompanying ills, is now declaring itself in my mind and life.
They tell me it is not so severe as that of youth; if I (and the _Casco_)
are spared, I shall tell you more exactly, as I am one of the few people
in the world who do not forget their own lives.
Good-bye, then, my dear fellow, and please write us a word; we expect to
have three mails in the next two months: Honolulu, Tahiti, and Guayaquil.
But letters will be forwarded from Scribner’s, if you hear nothing more
definite directly. In 3 (three) days I leave for San Francisco.—Ever
yours most cordially,