Mr. and Mrs. Young were RK's neighbors in Guilford, Connecticut. RK wrote this charming letter to them in the name of “Flora,” the French double harpsichord built by William Dowd in 1966.

February 14, 1973

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Young:

Please forgive this dictated letter, but I am only a harpsichord, and although people say that I can both talk and sing, I have never learned to write. But Mr. Kirkpatrick thinks, and I agree, that I should thank you for your hospitality last week while I was being fitted for my traveling costume. I much appreciated the warmth and shelter of your garage and decided to behave better than usual. Mr. Kirkpatrick does not always speak very kindly about me. He says that my beauty is not always matched by my virtue, and occasionally I have even heard him descend to such vulgar language as to say that I am a bitch. But I really mean well. It is simply that these changes of dryness to dampness and the drafts that blow on me from what I believe are called air-conditioning systems do upset me, and since I know that Mr. Kirkpatrick likes me in spite of all the unkind things he occasionally says about me, I do try to do my best for him.

I think he was really quite pleased with my performance in Texas. I hardly went out of tune, and I heard him say that perhaps I was becoming more constant with age. But I don't quite like the way he said it because he said he thought that there was a chance of my becoming respectable at last. But I forgave him because he so much appreciates my beauties, and I feel that he displays them to my utmost advantage.

Once again, let me thank you for your hospitality.

Yours very sincerely,

Flora