Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

and repolished, and the eleven mirrors regilded, it
will be quite splendid. There are some fine pieces
of furniture scattered over the house, but it all
needs repolishing and repairing. The butler's pantry is a room about thirty feet square, with a cistern
under the floor twenty feet deep. All the rain water
rushes into it. There is a big tiled bath downstairs
supplied with water from the roof when it rains.
At other times it is filled from a faucet. The house
faces Calle Concepcion, and the back of the house
is on the river. The great drawback is a rice warehouse on one side three stories high. The blank
wall of the galvanized iron reflects the tropical heat
directly into the bedrooms. However, we are
thankful to get so good a house, but it will not be
as cool as this house, and possibly not so healthy.
Governor Taft is still at the hospital, and, in
spite of his dangerous illness and two operations,
maintains his usual cheerful frame of mind. Whenever I go to see him, and tell him the more amusing
incidents of our China trip, he laughs till the bed
shakes. In spite of the fact that he is still seriously
ill, he keeps in touch with all public business, and
discusses and decides questions as if he were perfectly well. It has been decided he shall go to
America at the end of this month to recuperate. I
think Mrs. Taft needs the change as much as he
does. She is very debilitated, and has worked as
hard in her way as the governor in his. It is no
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