'I don't think you know how much good your letter did me. In the first place I was really afraid that you did not like my book, because I had never received your usual letter of criticism; and in the second, it was the one sweet little drop of honey that the postman had brought me for some time, as, on the average, I had been receiving three letters a day for above a fortnight, finding great fault with me (to use a [italics] mild [end italics] expression for the tone of their compliments) for my chapter about the Cowan Bridge School.'