1^Private^
2
3The Homestead
4Nov 16 / 96
5
6My dear Friend
7
8Your letter somewhat amused me! My financial affairs are from from my
9stand point very flourishing!! I’ve never been so comfortably off &
10satisfied in my life, & if I had more money I shouldn’t feel it right
11to spend it on myself, so I wouldn’t be the richer for it. I often
12wish I had money but not for my self.
13
14I mentioned what I did about the “African Farm”, because you might
15have thought it churlish in me not to give it for the penny ?news. But
16in-deed if I had a thousand a a year so that a couple of hundred a
17year made no difference to me I wouldn’t like a book that seems to unreadable
18^to me (perhaps only because I love it)^ ^to be^ more or less a work of
19art ^to be^ cut up or divided in any way. That is why I would never, if
20I could possibly help it, allow a novel of mine to appear in a
21magazine, because it must then be read in broken parts; (like looking
22at a statue a foot one week & a finger the next!)
23
24Did you get that photograph of Sir George Grey’s statue, I if you
25don’t want it ^I hav^ a great sent you, & the note
26about your boy’s visit to us?
27
28PS
29I have just remembered that I have just re not answered you about the
30story of an African Farm. The copy right is mine entirely. I am only
31allowing the present publisher to pr issue it for a limited number of
32years I getting a royalty for all the ^copies^ sole^d^. As the money I get
33from the sale of the book is nearly every thing I have to live on I
34would not like any extracts made from it which could in any way
35diminish the sale of the work, I My The publisher would have no right
36to make any arrangement for its publication, as the copy right is mine.
37
38Y
39
40^What a beautiful soul Josephine Butler was. I like when you write on
41such matters. That is my Stead. Are there two Steads??^
42