Yes, we got Mrs. Mattie’s most welcome note, & we tried hard to answer it in person, but by th happened to strike the slowest pair of horses in the State—wherefore by the time we got to the Tifft House it was manifest that we must give it up & take the back track to the station or miss the train. I was paying extra shekels for speed, but they hadn’t the commodity.

We were going to make a second attempt on our return from Fredonia, but the Dunkirk ticket agent could not check my trunk through to Elmira, & he likewise didn’t believe we could drive to your house & back between trains. So we did not return by way of Buffalo.

Now surely several visits & two or three attempts entitle us to a visit from the Grays, & we shall count upon it this very winter—& the earlier the better, “so say we all of us.” Your letter promises the visit,—constructively—& let me tell you you couldn’t give yourself a more healing rest than the reposeful atmosphere of our hermitage would give you & yours. Give us a few days’ notice, of the your coming, so that we can clear the house of possible unneeded sojourners & have a quiet field to ourselves.

I carried the little “Pauper” along to a point, where, at a gorgeous masque in the Guildhall, a messenger arrived & brought a dead silence upon the assemblage revels with the solemn proclamation of Henry VIIIs death—followed, after a moment by the prostration of the assemblage before the pauper, & a thunderous “Long live the King!”—& at the same moment, the ragged little true prince, trying to force his way in & assert his rights, was hustled, hooted, tr bruised, & driven away by the mob, along with his fantastic Don-Caesar-de-Bazan of a Champion.

Possibly I got a little further than that—I don’t remember. So I was about half through when I stopped. I shall take it up again with a powerful interest if I ever get another chance.

Well, goodbye to you both, & see that you come early. It was a great & unlooked-for disappointment that m we missed seeing you.