| Description | Mary contrasts her idleness with John's eight hours of 'star-pointing', six hours of sleep, and ten hours of desk work. She has received his letter of 31 December. She refers to what John writes about church-going and says that she 'has not outgrown the service...if only the officiating organ did not spoil and desecrate it'. The 'excellent Librarian' has sent two volumes of ferns, with plates. She is 'in a jungle of Polypodium' and is struggling to identify plants. Mary has remarked the tone of John's mother's letters and was taken with Maclear's reverant way of speaking about her. She does not see why they should have deeds sent out when a lawyer or bank might keep them and she has not written to 'that wretched creature' [Edward Power?]. |