Dearest Kir:—It was fine to hear from you, though now that I'm determined to answer my letters I {view the mail bag with mixed feelings, and yet with the virtuous feeling of one who is solvent at last and determined to remain so. We are having real snappy weather out here now, jywhat you would be expecting in' November at home, but we haven't any coal worries such as are wrinkling your brows. (Merely a figure of speech, Kitty, don't take offence). As-for the Chinese a shortage of fuel is the last thing to cause them to lose sleep at night. They have a soul above such trivialities as central heating or fireplaces, and, as much of their cooking is done outside and hot water shops flourish, all they have to do as the temperature rises is to put on an extra coat and (wind the good old knitted tippet round a few times more.
There's not much happened since my letter on the last mail except my visit to the Mixed Court. Yes, darling, I was released without any difficulty, thank you. I'm doing my utter utmost to see a few of the Shanghai sights, partly to have something to write home about but more to have something to keep up my end of the conversation here. I find that my travels, which consist of Iowa Center to New York and return and out to Shanghai do not make thrilling conversational material when I stack up against people who know Europe like their own back yards, have met the Taj Mahal by moonlight alone as often as I've seen and are on speaking terms with the fountain in the town square all the savages in the South Seas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.