26 February 1877 – 4 March 1877

To C. about 2.30. Mary and Madame Venturi in parlour. Portrait of De Quincy — 'untruthful man; story of girl in Opium Eater all untrue.' At the top of Oakley Street we pause a moment at the crossing to let a hansom-cab go by, but the Driver on his part politely pulls up to give us time, saying, ' All right, Mr. Carlyle ! ' C. and I get inside an omnibus. Passing the Chinese Embassy we saw a servant in yellow silk, and C. was reminded of the Learned Man in The Two Fair Cousins, a Chinese novel which he always had pleasure in recalling. He began telling the story, and spoke as usual of the Author ' as a Man of Genius of the dragon pattern.' He asked, ' Do you know the root of the word ten } I made a guess at it when I was wash- ing my feet the other morning. Zehen is " toes " in German, and Zehn " ten " = " toe-en," as it were. I took up the Arabic numerals one day, and made out the meaning of the signs,' I told him of my guess of the forms of many letters of the alphabet coming from the shapes of the mouth in saying them ; which was new to him and not without interest.