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there shd be 2,097,152 in 10 years time. Then
we will begin to cash up. There may
be some slight error in my arithmetic
but anyway we are safe for two
millions: two millions of 8/6ds. - wh
is the price in Jedburgh for a fat
Michaelmas goose - will provide a
gross return of £850,000. All of
this I shall owe, & shall gratefully
continue to owe, to you, but
you must at least accept a pearl
tie pin as a token of my gratitude.

I expect I am in Susie's
bad books; but my conduct is
not really so black as it appears;
for I have been considering lately whether
the time has not come to put off corruption
& to put on incorruption. It is odd
how distasteful the idea of incorruption becomes when
one regards it as a practical alternative.

In other words, I have been
enjoying bad health since the 17th of
March - the day of that odious Saint
who turned the snakes of Ireland into
Irishmen. When I thought I had made
good against my third trial - a particularly
poisonous bout of flu - there came a
fortnight of Nor East winds in London
wh. filled up the cup a fourth time.
Now I am happy, tucked up in
my own comfy little bed, looking
out on my own green hills, &
listening to Henry as he 'honks'
majestically over the love songs of
the whaups, & the pee-wees,
the cushies & the cock pheasants.
But I suppose all this comes under