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1 letterhead on board S.S. Sant'Anna, le 7 January, 1914 Off Corsica, en route from Marseilles to Naples, then homeward
bound. My dear, good Friend: Your kind cheering letter reached me at Paris, where I was during the holidays and whence
I fled to the Riviera (Nice) to unclutch the grip of a cold cough. I had intended to go to London but Paris weather was bad
enough for me. I fear California Italy have spoiled me for the cold North, where Fidelity is supposed to be native.- I am
taking this round about route Marseille - Naples - Palermo N. Y. for the fun of it and for a sea cure. It give me about three
days at Naples and a day at Palermo. 2 This ship is due at N.Y. the 23d Jan., and I hope for the pleasure of a visit to
you sometime in February Your munificent offer to bear the expense of the publication of my Dante leaves me speechless. I
dare not say I am grateful, remembering the cynical definition of gratitude as a lively anticipation of favors to come. You
are certainly showing yourself the best of friends, by all definitions, however cynical. I don't know where you derive? your
faith that my work is one to deserve your munificence. I would like to show you some specimens if it would not bore you. Possibly
you may have seen my rendering of the Lord's Prayer (Purg. XI), finished by Stanford University in the illegible Memorial
Volume.