Philip Gilbert Hamerton Part 51

It was, I believe, a sort of unconscious presentiment which prompted my husband to see _all_ his friends during this last visit to England.

Knowing that he had so much pressing work on hand, I had been surprised by his decision to go to London so soon after his last journey, and still more to hear that he intended to go to Holmwood to make the acquaintance of Mr. C. Gould, the son of his cousin Anne; to Dorking, to see Mrs. Hamerton, of h.e.l.lifield Peel, and her married daughter; to Alresford, to stay a couple of days with Sir Seymour Haden and his wife; and then to Southampton, to call upon Mr. R. Leslie. All these arrangements surprised me exceedingly; but I came to the conclusion that my husband's health must be excellent, since he volunteered to undertake, with evident pleasure, what he would have dreaded to do some time ago.

Indeed, his letters expressed nothing but enjoyment from all these visits, and the keen interest he took in the Academy exhibition.

He was made very welcome by Sir Frederick Leighton, to whom he explained the grievances of the Ill.u.s.trators, and who gave him a promise to do his best for them; and Mr. Hamerton was glad to think he might have been of use.

A singular occurrence happened shortly after his return. Friends, more particularly those who came from abroad, were often debarred from accepting his invitations on account of the distance between Paris and the Parc des Princes, and the consequent lateness of the hour when they could reach their home or hotel after dining at Clematis. Gilbert, therefore, had adopted a plan--much in use in the French capital--which consists in inviting friends to a conveniently situated restaurant, where the goodness of the cookery and attendance may be relied upon. It occurred to my husband to try the Terminus Hotel at the Gare du Havre, from which many travellers start for England; and he invited M. Raillard to test the place with him. They were both pleased with it, and left at about ten p.m. It was most fortunate that they did not remain much longer, for at eleven an explosion, caused by a dynamite bomb, wrecked the room in which they had dined, and wounded several people.

A long-deferred meeting with Mr. Frederick Harrison took place in June, and the day was spent in visiting the Louvre, Tuileries, Notre Dame, and the Hotel de Ville.

We had also been expecting with pleasant antic.i.p.ations the visit of Mr.

Niles, when we received the sad news of his death at Perugia, and learned that he had been in failing health for some years, and had decided to come to Europe for rest. My husband's regrets were very sincere. From time to time we had news of R. L. Stevenson; those received in a letter from Mr. R. A.M. Stevenson, in the course of the same mouth, were very pleasing.

"I heard from R. L. Stevenson a few weeks ago. He said: 'If you saw me here you would no longer question my wisdom in staying; you would not wonder at my preferring this life to that of Bournemouth.' In England he pa.s.sed half his time in bed, the whole winter in the house, and he could never walk half-a-mile. Now he is out by six in the morning, sometimes bathes, and occasionally spends the whole day in the saddle. He was always fond of the open air, and though never strong, was a good walker, and, as you know, able to do a little boating. He often spoke to me of his visit to you at Autun."

The a.s.sa.s.sination of President Carnot, which occurred in June, grieved and horrified my husband as much as if he had been a Frenchman. He had the greatest respect for the scrupulous manner in which M. Carnot discharged all his duties, and admired the simple dignity with which he held the rank of First Citizen of a great nation. Being himself a Liberal--but a Moderate one--it had given him hopes for the stability of a Moderate-Liberal Republic, to see at the head of it the personification of unsuspected honesty and wise patriotism.

On the whole, he was satisfied with the choice of his successor, and amused by this phrase about M. Casimir-Perier in one of Mr. Seeley's letters: "I saw a portrait of the new French President lately. He looks a man not to be trifled with." The remark has been curiously justified since.

Having to go out so frequently now in the afternoons in order to see artists and pictures, my husband altered his rules of work, and devoted the whole of the mornings to literary composition, and the heat being very oppressive this summer, he worked better in the cooler time of day; yet I was rather afraid of the consequences when I saw him start for Paris with the thermometer standing at 88 or 90 almost every afternoon, but he maintained that it did him no harm.

On July 14--the Fete Nationale--Mr. Jaccaci having called with M.

Vierge, Gilbert went back to dine with him in Paris and to see the fireworks. They were both struck by the extraordinary quietness of the great town, generally so merry and noisy at that date, but now subdued by respectful sympathy for the death of its late President.

Note in the diary: "Never saw streets of Paris so quiet before. Could cross easily anywhere. In Avenue de l'Opera could count people."

We had heard from M. Raillard that the reputation of his father-in-law was penetrating into Germany. He had seen some notices and reviews of his works, and in August a professor at the Zurich University sent this flattering letter:--

"Monsieur,--Je vais publier une pet.i.te bibliotheque francaise a l'usage des ecoles allemandes, avec des notes en francais. Le premier volume contiendra une forte partie du fameux livre de Tocqueville sur l'ancien regime et la revolution. Le second sera, si vous le permettez, compose d'extraits de votre excellent livre, 'Francais et Anglais,' traduction de M. Labouchere.

"Auriez-vous la bonte de me fournir quelques dates sur votre vie et sur vos autres ouvrages, que je pourrais utiliser pour l'introduction?"

Just at the time, when my husband was making extensive plans of work, justified as it seemed by the great improvement in his health, he was suddenly attacked by a new malady, which he believed to be asthma. There were no premonitory symptoms; he was as well as usual in the daytime, and even after going to bed, where he always read before going to sleep; but directly he fell asleep, he was suddenly aroused again by suffocation. In describing his sensations to me, he said it seemed as if breathing required--while in a waking state--a slight effort, which he made unconsciously, and this being discontinued when sleep arrived, produced suffocation. I attributed this painful state to a change in the working of his nervous system, and pressed him to see a doctor; but he was convinced that he was becoming asthmatic, and that there was no help for it.

Although he told me that if he had his choice in the matter, he would rather die than be condemned to a life of impotence, with perpetual cares and precautions, he bore his sufferings, or rather forebodings, with his accustomed courage and patience, and attempted to calm my apprehensions by affirming that, though his nights were disturbed, he could still get sleep out of bed, in an arm-chair, and now and then in the day-time when overpowered by fatigue. The various means of relief used by asthmatic people and recommended by different friends proving--without exception--utterly inefficacious for him, I attempted to console him by pointing out that asthma often manifested itself at very long intervals, and that, in general, the worst attacks were hardly more painful than those of gout. He answered that he could bear the pain of these attacks, but what he dreaded most was chronic asthma, which, by lowering his general health, would reduce him to an invalid state.

However, the worst symptoms soon subsided, and about three weeks after the first disturbance he was writing to Mr. Seeley: "I am much better, though my nights are still frequently interrupted. I require a great deal of exercise, more than I can find time for; the more exercise I take the better I am." And yet when, shortly afterwards, a specialist had to be called in, he declared that his patient "was completely overworked mentally and physically," and he ordered him to give up the velocipede altogether, and to restrict his walks to short distances and a leisurely pace.

I have never been able to understand how it was that physical exercise being so hurtful to Gilbert, he should invariably have felt benefited by it, so far as his sensations went.

The vacation had come round again, and the impossibility of realizing the pleasant plans we had formed obliged our children to alter theirs.

Stephen went to London, and M. Raillard took his wife through Switzerland to Germany. They had frequently written on their way, and now told of their impressions of Freiburg, where they decided to remain three weeks.

I mentioned before that my husband's knowledge of places which he had never seen was surprising. In this instance he could induce Mary and her husband to believe that he had actually stayed where they were. The attempt amused him, and he read me the following letter before posting it:--

"19 _aout_ 1894.

"Ma Chere et bonne fille,--Je t'aurais ecrit plus tot pour te souhaiter ta fete, qui est aujourd'hui, mais je n'esperais pas que ma lettre put te parvenir, comme tu etais en route. Je n'ai jamais pu savoir ce que souhaiter une fete voulait dire, mais si c'est quelque bien,--comme la sante, par exemple,--tu sais quels sont mes voeux; enfin je voudrais te savoir aussi heureuse que possible:

"Je ne trouve pas que la couleur de la cathedrale de Freiburg soit desagreable. Il est vrai que je prefere un gris argente, mais le ton chaud de Freiburg fait bien et il a gagne une certaine patine avec les annees. On m'a dit quand j'y etais que celle de Strasbourg a la meme couleur, mais je ne l'ai jamais vue. Quel bonheur pour Freiburg d'avoir tous ces pet.i.ts ruisseaux qui nettoient les rues et qui viennent de la riviere Dreisam! Je n'admire pas plus que toi la tendance polychrome qu'on voit dans certains details de la ville.

"Avez-vous vu le chateau de Zahringen? Il est au nordest de Freiburg, a trois kilometres environ; c'est une promenade tres facile.

"Je me suis demande si a Baie vous vous etiez arretes a l'hotel des Trois-Rois. Il y a la un long balcon d'ou l'on voit le fort courant du Rhin qui pa.s.se sous l'ancien pont. Je me rappelle qu'a l'extremite de ce pont, du cote oppose, il y avait une bra.s.serie ou, en buvant son verre de biere, on pouvait regarder l'eau qui coulait toujours, et si vite.

"a Lucerne, j'ai vu egalement couler la Reuss sous l'ancien pont ou l'on voit la Danse de la Mort. Mr. Macgregor a ose descendre cette riviere (qui est un torrent tres dangereux plus bas) en perissoire. Ce n'est pas moi qui essaierai.

"Je continue a mieux aller, je puis maintenant m'endormir a.s.sez facilement, et je reste generalement dans mon lit toute la nuit, mais pas toujours. Mon sommeil est souvent interrompu, mais vite repris. En somme grand progres.

"Bonne-maman va beaucoup mieux aussi, elle prend de la Kola qui lui fait, parait-il, grand bien.

"Stephen a regagne l'appet.i.t et part vendredi pour Londres.

"Mes meilleures amities a Raoul, et tous mes souhaits pour un bon sejour a Lucerne, cet endroit si ravissant!

"Vieux Papa."

To the infinite amus.e.m.e.nt of "Vieux Papa," his daughter answered immediately, "We never knew that you had been at Freiburg," etc., etc.

In the course of August my husband had the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted with Mr. Scribner, who called upon him in the company of Mr. Jaccaci.

The improvement in Gilbert's state did not last. We renewed our entreaties about having a doctor's advice, and he yielded.

The great physician whom we called in declared it was weakness of the heart--due to overwork--that his patient was suffering from, and not asthma. He promised to set him up again in four months with his prescriptions.

Strange to say, Gilbert was greatly relieved to hear that his case was hypertrophy of the heart rather than asthma--for me it was the dreaded confirmation of fears that had long haunted me; still, we both derived hope and encouragement from the doctor's a.s.surance of an ultimate cure.

I cannot say that we really believed in a total cure, but we thought it possible to recover the former state of health which had preceded the attacks of suffocation. "I have not felt old, hitherto," my husband said, "certainly not more than if I had been only fifty; but the fact is, I am now sixty, and therefore must be prepared to face the advent of old age. I will submit to any privation for the sake of health, though it seems hard to be deprived of exercise. It is singular that my mental state should be clearer and more vigorous than ever before, and that my work should be easier and more enjoyable than at any former time."

Mr. Seeley had written:--

"What a good thing you called in this Parisian doctor! It might have been serious if you had gone on taking strong exercise in your present state of health.

"I can quite understand your feeling of relief that at any rate it is not asthma. Perhaps when you take less exercise the gout may return, and the heart be relieved at once. That the doctor confidently promises a cure in a few months is a great satisfaction to us."

The good results of the prescribed regimen were soon experienced, and I hailed--not unhopefully--the return of an attack of gout, predicted by Mr. Seeley, which I feared less for Gilbert than the heart troubles. The doctor had said, after hearing that the gout had almost entirely disappeared, "You have made a bad bargain in exchanging gout for hypertrophy."

This is what my husband himself wrote to his friend:--

"The worst of me just now for making inquiries, is that on getting up this morning I found I had an attack of gout in my right knee. Hitherto it is only slight (I write at two p.m.), but I cannot bend it without considerable pain, so I must wait till to-morrow at any rate, before trying to go to Paris. It is quite possible that the attack may be very slight, but it is also possible that I may be laid up by it. However this may be, I will of course keep your letter, and do all in my power to help in the present emergency.

"Many thanks for your very kind letter about my doctor's visit. I wish I had known him ten years sooner. He is most scrupulously observant of things as they really are, and does not set off, as doctors often do, from a preconceived notion of his own. The results of the regimen are already beneficial. My nights have been gradually improving since it began. Last night I slept perfectly till about two in the morning, and then awoke without any suffocation, and soon fell asleep again, remaining quiet with good breathing till half-past six. About a week since I could not sleep _at all_, being immediately awakened by suffocation every time I began to drop off.

"Please thank Mrs. Seeley on my part and my wife's for her kind sympathy, which we know is most sincere. Tell her I regret to have called you her teetotal husband, as I am no better myself. Nay, it is you who have the advantage of me with your two gla.s.ses of claret, which I call downright intemperance." (He was allowed to drink nothing but milk.)

Our children feeling uneasy still, and anxious about the state of their father, cut their journey rather short to be back again with him. M.

Raillard wished to see Sens in coming back, and the house we had lived in there. So his father-in-law sent him some information about the place, and added:--

"Ne manquez pas surtout de voir l'interieur de la Salle Synodale qui est peut-etre la plus belle salle gothique du monde apres celle de Westminster. Le tresor de la Cathedrale est interessant.