Harrison plays Rosalind. I wish you had been here to take the
part. Miss Harrison reads her lines well, but she is either a
maiden-all-forlorn or a tomboy; insists on reading into the part
all sorts of deeper meanings and highly coloured suggestions wholly
out of harmony with the pastoral setting. Like most of the
professionals, she exaggerates the emotional element and quite
fails to do justice to Rosalind's facile wit and really brilliant
mental qualities. Gerard will do Orlando, but rumor says he is
epris of your sometime friend, Miss Meredith, and his memory
is treacherous and his interest fitful.

My new pictures arrived last week on the Gascogne. The
Puvis de Chavannes is even more beautiful than I thought it in
Paris. A pale dream-maiden sits by a pale dream-cow and a
stream of anemic water flows at her feet. The Constant, you
will remember, I got because you admired it. It is here in
all its florid splendour, the whole dominated by a glowing
sensuosity. The drapery of the female figure is as wonderful
as you said; the fabric all barbaric pearl and gold, painted
with an easy, effortless voluptuousness, and that white,
gleaming line of African coast in the background recalls
memories of you very precious to me. But it is useless to
deny that Constant irritates me. Though I cannot prove the
charge against him, his brilliancy always makes me suspect him
of cheapness.

Here Margaret stopped and glanced at the remaining pages of
this strange love-letter. They seemed to be filled chiefly with
discussions of pictures and books, and with a slow smile she laid
them by.