I am at Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, I suppose for the winter: it seems a first-rate place; we have a house in the eye of many winds, with a view of a piece of running water - Highland, all but the dear hue of peat - and of many hills - Highland also, but for the lack of heather. Soon the snow will close on us; we are here some twenty miles - twenty-seven, they say, but this I profoundly disbelieve - in the woods; communication by letter is slow and (let me be consistent) aleatory; by telegram is as near as may be impossible. I had some experience of American appreciation; I liked a little of it, but there is too much; a little of that would go a long way to spoil a man; and I like myself better in the woods. I am so damned candid and ingenuous (for a cynic), and so much of a 'cweatu'

