MS Mrs Clare Roels
My dear Christabel
I am sorry not to have written to you before, but I could not get time before. It does seem to me good time for a story again, but do you not think the Proverb foundation has been rather much worked and could not the subject be proposed in some other way. For instance suppose they were set to Write a story shewing the difference between Romance and Sentiment Only that cuts up your other question which I like very much I think the Genius and Imagination was once asked by one of the fireflies in her short life.1 I cannot lay my hand on your letter, and I do not feel sure what your other was. Was it not something on national character[.] Shamrock has never had a Barnacle since June which I cannot make out at all, have I missed her in the list? I put her high up in the list for sending round the answers because I put London and suburbs as much together as I can. What became of the answers I cannot think, the same great ones have stopped short somewhere and never got to Bog Oak nor home
your affectionate
C M Yonge
If you do want a proverb story what think you of ‘Dwarfs on giants shoulders see further than Giants’ but do not let me lose Romance & Sentiment