Volume Ii Part 26 (1/2)
”I have conceived a new story which may, I think, turn out well. I do not wish to do it hurriedly, but if you think it would suit you by the opening of the New Year, I will go on to shape and mould it in my head, and when in a state to do so, send you some pages.
”I can afford to be frank with you, for I think you wish me well. I believe there is some thought of giving me advancement, but even if it come, it will not suffice for my wants, and I must write (at all events) _one more novel_. I trust you understand me well enough to know that I am not pressing my wares on you, because _I_ want to dispose of them, or that if it be your wish or your convenience to say 'No' that it will alter anything in our friends.h.i.+p. You will bear this well in mind in giving me your reply.
”I don't believe I shall do better than 'Sir Brook.' I don't think it is _in_ me, but I will try to do as well, and certainly if it is for _you_, I will not do my work less vigorously nor with less heart in it. There is certainly plenty of time to think of all this, but I _think_ better and more purposely when the future is, to a certain degree, a.s.sured, and my new story will get a stronger hold on me if I know that you too are interested in its welfare.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Florence, _Oct_. 7, 1866.
”My best thanks for your note and its enclosure. They only reached me last night, though dated 30th, but the mails go by G.o.d knows what route now, as the inundations have completely cut the Mont Cenis line. I send off the Nov. 'Sir B.' to-night. There are two or three small corrections which had escaped me. I think if the book be largely known it may succeed. I hope 'The Times' may notice it--is this likely? I shall ask for some copies for a few friends, and my own can be addressed to me under cover to F. Alston, Esq., F. O. My eldest daughter, who went carefully over the corrections, says I have done nothing as good. By the way, I have not gone over Sept. and Oct. Nos. See that Sewell is never Walter, always _duelling_, and look well to any other lapses.
”I am all wrong in health, and depressed most d.a.m.nably. I go down to Spezzia to have a swim or two to try to rally, and I shall take the O'Ds.
with me for correction.
”I suspect Perry will not give up Venice, but your friends are asking L.
Stanley to give me Havre, which _is_ vacant. How kind of you to offer to write to him. I don't like putting you to the bore, but if you come personally in his way, say what you can, or think you can, for me. Havre is worth 700 a-year, and would solace my declining years and decaying faculties. Paralysis is the last luxury of poor devils like myself, but I really can't afford it.
”So Lyons goes Amba.s.sador to Paris. I know him well, and his capacity is about that of a small village doctor. The devil of it is, in English diplomacy the two or three men of ability are such arrant scamps and blackguards, they can't be employed, and the honest men are dull as ditch-water. There is no denying it, and I don't say it because I am dyspeptic,--but we have arrived at Fogeydom in England, and the highest excellence that the nation wants or estimates is a solemn and stolid 'respectability' that shocks n.o.body with anything new or original, and spoils no digestion by any sudden or unexpected brilliancy.
”The Ionian knight is here with me, full of grander projects than ever Skeff Darner dreamed of. He asked me yesterday if that character had any prototype.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Croce di Malta, Spezzia, _Oct_. 9,1866.
”I have been here some days swimming and boating, and the sea and sea-air have done wonders for me, making me feel more like a live man than I have known myself these six months.
”I send you by this post the O'Ds. corrected, and herewith a few lines to finish the 'Cable' O'D., which you properly thought needed some completion.
”I go back to-morrow, and hope to find a letter from you. Though I am totally alone here, and have n.o.body above my boatman to talk to, I leave this with some regret. The beauty of the place and the vigour it gives me are unspeakable enjoyments. It is like a dream of being twenty years younger.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Villa Morelli, _Oct_. 22, 1866.
”I am very grateful for your note on my behalf. You said just the sort of thing that would be likely to serve me, and will, I have no doubt, serve me if opportunity offers. Lord S. has been so besieged on my part by my friends that he will for peace sake be anxious to get rid of me.
The difficulty is, however, considerable. The whole Consular service is a beggarly concern, and the only thing reconcilable about it is when there is, as in my own case, nothing to do.
”The Party were much blamed--and, I suspect, deservedly--for the way in which they are distributing their patronage. It was but last week Havre, with a thousand a-year (consular salary), was given to Bernai Osborne's brother! and two of the private sees, of Cabinet Ministers held office as such under the late Administration. These are blunders, and blunders that not alone alienate friends but confuse councils, since no one pretends to say that these men maintain a strict silence amongst their own party of what they hear and see in their official lives.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Villa Morelli, _Nov_. 8,1866.