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of great service to me in getting quicker at the true values without repainting.
   For of course you know the less repainting the better with this kind of ground, otherwise one may as well use the ordinary ground, absorbent canvas becoming [[underline]] non [[/underline]]absorbent; after the first, or second coat, even viciously non-absorbent.
   The tone being made in the [[underline]] laying [[/underline]] of the ground, enables me to do so much more with less vehicle.
   I can easily understand what a charm absorbent canvas must have for you with your feeling for airy greys, and I wish I could tell you more about it. I fancy [[Rusis?]] de Charamas would be the man who would know most about it.
   I wish very much I could accept your kind invitation to Dublin but I have been so long away from home

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I must now go to work. It would be a pleasure to me to visit your summer studio and have a good talk over your work, that I so much admire.
  That word work! What a big word it becomes when applied to the effort of trying to get some of Nature's Devine beauty on canvas, [[insertion]] and [[/insertion]] how inadequate our materials! The only hope is in hieroglyphs, and teach your audience what they mean.
   You would be delighted in Mexico, the costume of the women is so charming.  They weave the "Rabosa" (a kind of scarf or shawl) around the head, and shoulders, but is very much finer than anything I saw in Spain.  Much more serene and Greek than the Mantilla. The features are hardly Greek but the complexion in very many cases is a most beautiful olive.