"MY LORD DUKE,--The photographs, which Your Grace did me the honour of sending arrived safely; and I can assure your Royal Highness that I am very glad to have them, and like them _very_ much, particularly the large head of your late Royal Uncle's little little son. I do not wonder that your excellent Uncle Richard should say 'off with his head!' as a hint to the photographer to print it off. Would your Highness like me to go on calling you the Duke of York, or shall I say 'my own own darling Isa?' Which do you like best? "Now I'm going to find fault with my pet about her acting. What's the good of an old Uncle like me except to find fault? "You do the meeting with the Prince of Wales _very_ nicely and lovingly; and, in teasing your Uncle for his dagger and his sword, you are very sweet and playful and--'but _that's_ not finding fault!' Isa says to herself. Isn't it? Well, I'll try again. Didn't I hear you say 'In weightier things you'll say a _beggar_ nay,' leaning on the word 'beggar'? If so, it was a mistake. _My_ rule for knowing which word to lean on is the word that tells you something _new_, something that is _different_ from what you expected. "Take the sentence 'first I bought a bag of apples, then I bought a bag of pears,' you wouldn't say 'then I bought a _bag_ of pears.' The 'bag' is nothing new, because it was a bag in the first part of the sentence. But the _pears_ are new, and different from the _apples_. So you would say, 'then I bought a bag of _pears_.' "Do you understand that, my pet?" "Now what you say to Richard amounts to this, 'With light gifts you'll say to a beggar "yes": with heavy gifts you'll say to a beggar "nay."' The words 'you'll say to a beggar' are the same both times; so you mustn't lean on any of _those_ words. But 'light' is different from 'heavy,' and 'yes' is different from 'nay.' So the way to say the sentence would be 'with _light_ gifts you'll say to a beggar "_yes_": with _heavy_ gifts you'll say to a beggar "_nay_".' And the way to say the lines in the play is-- 'O, then I see you will _part_ but with _light_ gifts; In _weightier_ things you'll say a beggar _nay_.' "One more sentence. "When Richard says, 'What, would you have my _weapon_, little Lord?' and you reply 'I _would_, that I might thank you as you call me,' didn't I hear you pronounce 'thank' as if it were spelt with an 'e'? I know it's very common (I often do it myself) to say 'thenk you!' as an exclamation by itself. I suppose it's an odd way of pronouncing the word. But I'm sure it's wrong to pronounce it so when it comes into a _sentence_. It will sound _much_ nicer if you'll pronounce it so as to rhyme with 'bank.'