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Show A. J. Drexel Biddle, whose book on Maderia is one ' of the standard works that deal with the island, had been talking about the trouble which has arisen between Germany and Portugal over the German sanatorium at Funchal. "Maderia is a delightful place," he said. "One of its greatest, one of its strongest delights is coasting. You coast down the steep mountain sides in a wicker basket with wooden runners, and so fast do you go that sometimes your runners smoke, sometimes they even burst into flame. "This coasting in Maderia's May-like weather is a strange pleasure. I can't describe its strange-" noss. It reminds me " He smiled. "It reminds me in its strangeness of a Christmas Christ-mas gift that was sent last month to a certain maiden lady. The gift was sent to her by her nephew, and afterward he described it thus: " 'At first I could not think of anything to give Aunt Mary for Christmas, and then, suddenly I remembered that she was an old maid, wholly . unacquainted with the grand passion, and so, in order to give her a unique pleasure, I sent her an anonymous love letter.' " |