The papers made such an absurd stir! If you are known by name as occupying any little niche, the world waits gaping below. I suppose I ought to be flattered, but for _days_ there were callers, letters, telephone-messages. Like Royalty _in extremis_... And I never _pretended_ that the operation was in any sense critical... Do you know, beyond saying that, I would much rather _not_ talk about it? This very modern frankness... Not _you_, of course! But, when a man like my brother-in-law Spenworth strides in here a few hours before the anæsthetic is administered and says "What _is_ the matter with you? Much ado about nothing, _I_ call it..." That from Arthur's brother to Arthur's wife, when, for all he knew, he might never see her alive again... I prefer just to say that everything went off most satisfactorily and that I hope now to be better than I have been for years... It was anxiety more than anything else. A prolonged strain always finds out the weak place: Arthur complaining that he had lost some of his directorships and that, with the war, he was being offered none to take their place; talk of selling the house in Mount Street, every _corner_ filled with a wonderful memory of old happy days when the princess almost _lived_ with me; sometimes no news from the front for weeks, and that _could_ only mean that my boy Will was moving up with the staff. It was just when I was at my wits' end that he wrote to say that he must have five hundred pounds. He gave no reason, so I assumed that one of his friends must be in trouble; and I was not to tell Arthur... This last effort really exhausted me; and I knew that, if I was not to be a useless encumbrance to everybody, I must "go into dock," as Will would say, "for overhauling and repairs." Dr. Richardson really seemed reluctant to impose any further tax on my vitality at such a time, but I assured him that I was not afraid of the knife. So here you find me! A little home-sick for Mount Street and my friends? Indeed, yes; though I have not been neglected. Are not those tulips too magnificent? _Were_, rather... The dear princess brought them a week ago, and I was so touched by her sweetness that I have not the heart to throw them away. If _she_, to whom I can be nothing but a dull old woman... I mean, it brings into relief the unkindness of others; and I do indeed find it hard to forgive the callousness of Spenworth and my brother Brackenbury. No, _that_--like the operation--I would rather _not_ talk about. Their attitude was so--wicked...