Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume Ii Part 48

"Bulwer (Lord Dalling) is with me now; but he is a richer man than myself, and though we rally after dinner, we are poor creatures of a morning.

"Your last note did me real good, and I have re-read it three or four times."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _Nov_. 16, 1871.

"You are right about Bradlaugh, and I have added a few lines to insert in the place marked. I hope I am not libellous, and I believe I have steered safely.

"I am breaking up at last more rapidly, for up to this the planking has been too tough; but I am now b.u.mping heavily, and, please G.o.d, must soon go to pieces.

"Your kindness, and your wife's, are very dear to me. I am constantly thinking of you both. Your last note gave me sincere pleasure.

"Lytton and I talked a great deal of you and drank your health. We often wished you were with us. He is immensely improved--I mean mentally,--and become one of the very best talkers I ever met, and not a shade of any affectation about him. I am convinced he will make a great career yet.

"'Our Quacks' is, I think, a better t.i.tle. Decide yourself."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _Dec_. 11, 1871.

"I was indeed surprised at the address of your letter, but I should have been more than surprised--overjoyed--had I seen yourself, and I am sorely sorry you did not come on here. Do let it be for another time, and ask Mrs Blackwood to have a craving desire to see Venice and the t.i.tians, and take me as an accident of the road.

"I am getting too ill for work, but not for the pleasure of seeing my friends, and there is nothing does me the same good.

"I see no difficulty in writing to you about Austria, but not as O'Dowd,--gravely, soberly, and, if I could, instructingly. But I must wait for a little health and a little energy, or I should be only steaming with half-boiler power.

"I see little prospect now of getting better, and all I have to do is to scramble along with as much of health as remains to me, and not bore my friends or myself any more on the matter. Sending the divers down to report how thin my iron plating is, is certainly not the way to encourage me to a new voyage.

"Like a kind fellow, send me George Eliot's new book. There is nothing like her."

XXII. TRIESTE 1872

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _Jan_. 31, 1872.

"I am ordered off to Fiume for change of air--the change of scene that is to affect me is somewhat farther. Before I go I send you two O'Ds.

that have been under my hands these few weeks back. Whether they be print-worthy or not, you will know and decide; if so, I shall be back to correct and add another by the time a proof could reach me.

"I am in a very creaky condition, and why I hold together at all I don't understand. Like the _Megaera_, all the attempts to stop the leak only widens the breach."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _Feb_. 15, 1872.

"It was an angel from heaven suggested to your wife the thought of a run out here. Only come and I'll go with you to j.a.pan if you like. There are no two people in the world I should rather see, and though the place is a poor one and I a dull dog, the thought of seeing you here would brighten us both up, as the mere notion has cheered me already."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _Feb_. 26, 1872.

"I send you (and thus early to be in time for next month) a short sketchy story which, as the man said of the Athanasian Creed, is founded on fact, but not the better (I mean the story) for that.

"It has a moral too, or rather several morals, to be distributed according to age and s.e.x, and, in fact, is a 'righte merrie' and well conceived tale, as I hope you will tell me.

"I had fully made up my mind to write no more, and to water my grog to enable me to do so, but I now discover that neither of my two daughters like 'watered grog' at all, but prefer whatever dietary habit has inured them to. 'For this reason and for the season' I am at it once more, though my ink-bottle looks as ruefully at me as the Yankees at Gladstone for backing out of the N. Y. Convention.

"By the way, I hope you have printed my correct version of the Alabama; I know it is the true one, and as I am the only discoverer, I am jealous about my invention.

"I had a grand argument to arraign the Ministry on the Collier job (which no one hit on), but coming at this d------d corner of Europe it was too late, and lost.

"I feel that the day after I am buried here some bright notion will occur to me and make me very uncomfortable in my grave. I have a dress rehearsal of this misery three times a-week, and gout all the time besides.

"Send me news of your plans and projects, if any of them tend this way.

I shall have a 'thanksgiving day' of my own, and be grateful, without scarlet cloth or Mr Aytoun on the Board of Ws."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _March_ 9 and 11.

"I begin your note now, not intending to finish till I see if the post, a couple of days hence, may bring me some news of my short story, 'Some one Pays.' Meanwhile I have time to thank you heartily for your note and its contents, and to say what courage you give me by the hope that Mrs Blackwood is really serious about coming out here. As a short tour nothing could be nicer than to come out by Brussels, Munich, and Vienna (and through Trieste), back by Venice, Milan, Florence, Turin, and the Mont Cenis to Paris. I am seriously anxious that you should have a number of interesting places to see, and that the journey should repay you thoroughly. Dull as the place is, every one needs some rest in a tour, and Trieste can come in as your halt, and all the pleasure your visit will give us will be your recompense for enduring our stupidity.

"Monson, who is here on his way to his post (Consul-General at Pesth), is just fresh from a visit to Lyons at Paris, where he met Lord Derby.

It seems that Lord D. spoke very frankly and confidently of Gladstone's speedy fall, and of the Tories ascent to power, even to the extent of the distribution of office, who was to be Sec. at F. O., &c."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _March_ 30, 1872.

"When I was thinking I was getting better I have fallen back again into short-breathing, heart-fluttering, and grampus-blowing bad as ever.

"I send you an absurd 'O'Dowd' to add to the 'Widows,' when you publish it. Rose comes here from Constantinople in a day or so, and by the time I shall receive the proof I shall probably have some secret details of Tichborne worth telling.