[Compromise.] ... Do you know a nice story of compromise in married life? There was a friend, as it might be me, who was present at a connubial difference, as it might be between you and Mr. Horner about the painting of your house - he wanted it painted white and you wanted it painted blue. Weeks after I say to Mr. Horner, "How did you settle about the colours?" Mrs. Horner answers, "We came to a compromise and had it painted blue."

... Tell me about your books and I will introduce you - I did introduce you to Plutarch, didn't I? Have you Plutarch's Morals translated by Philemon Holland? There be fine pickings there. Do you remember Cleopatra sending love letters, little Billet Doux to Anthony while he was even sitting on the Judgment seat - as Mrs. Asquith might to Asquith while he was speaking in the House - but do you remember how they were written? - engraved on onyx and crystal - such a queen she was. As I passed through Kensington yesterday I saw a superscription on a shop front, "A. LARKE, Temporary Premises." It sounded so nice and merry and ephemeral - it set me pining -

... I had such a nice letter from Swinburne, troubled about Morris, and in it he said he often indites letters to me in his mind, "such letters, my dear Ned, as St. Jerome might have indited to St. Augustine if they had been contemporaries, as I have no doubt they were capable of being"; and glad of his merriment was I.