12
of reading.      Nelly, the younger is fair and fat,
but has moles on her face, and a resentful, wilful
way with her.            Fanny has been a handsomish
woman, and looks well now but haggard.  She is light haired,
and when animated her face flushes.   Only a
triangular bit of her forehead is perceptible, her
manner of wearing her hair concealing the rest.
Parton appears very fond of her.  /    He, however,
isn�t jealous of Walt�s kissing her, which he
always does on quitting.)          Walt talks well
� but occasionally too much, being led by the
interest with which his remarks are received
into monopolizing the converse.         I, as a rule,
would prefer to play listener, yet it is a violation
of good taste to find yourself constrained to become
one.      And nobody wishes to become a bucket to be
pumped into, let the stream be ever so nutritious.
He, Walt Whitman is equally a disbeliever in the
divinity of Christ, as is Parton.   (I put this
down simply as a fact, sans depreciation of faith
or lack of it.)                      I have met Fry
there, one of the Tribune men.
  Alf �Hill� and �Mrs H� are rusticating some-
where near Boston.    I get and respond to, letters
occasionally.      He projects going west, to effect a
divorce for his Helen, from her Menelaus, in a
month or so.          I call on her relatives when there
is anything to communicate.