Volume Ii Part 35 (1/2)
”Trieste, _Feb_. 13, 1869.
”I was very impatient to hear from you. What you say of the whist story is all true, though I didn't make my man a fellow of All Souls' but only a master of that college. Some of the fellows are, however, notoriously the worst whisters going. They are selected for convivial qualities, not the gentlemanlike ones. Unhappily there is a distinction.
”Of course it wants point, just as one-franc Bordeaux wants 'body.' It is merely meant to be light tipple, and if it does not give heartburn there is nothing to grumble at over it.
”Still I'd have made it better if I knew how, but I couldn't hit on anything I thought improvement.
”My wife has got a serious relapse, and I have not written a line since I wrote to you. It will suit my book--that is, my story (not my banker's book)--if you could begin with me by your new volume in July; but of course I am at the mercy of your other engagements.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Trieste, _March_ 2, 1869.
”I send you two short, but I think spicy, O'Ds., and will try to add another. My girls say that if F. O. does not 'inform me' something about the 'new series,' it will be strange and singular, for it is certainly impertinent.
”The war is evidently drawing near, but the terror of each to begin grows greater every day. It is firmly believed here that a secret understanding binds Russia and America, and that if England moves out of strict neutrality the States mean to be troublesome. Farragut told me he saw no navy to compare with the Russian, but I know enough of Yankees to accept his talk with more than one grain of salt.
”The efforts of France and Prussia to secure the alliance of Italy are most amusing, as if the events of late had not shown how totally inoperative Italy was, and that nothing could be worse than her army except her fleet.
”My poor wife makes no progress towards recovery, and all we can do, by incessant care, is to support her strength. I never leave the house now, and am broken in spirits and nearly 'off the hooks.'
”Do write me a line when you have time. It is always pleasant to hear from you.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Trieste, _March_ 14, 1869.
”You are quite right, there was a clear _non sequitur_ in the new series O'D., and I have corrected it, I hope, satisfactorily.
”You are not, I think, so right about 'Norcott,'* at least I hope not, for I cannot see the improbability or impossibility you speak of in the latter part. The sketch of Hungarian life was, I believe, perfectly correct, and there was no more improbability in the story than that of heaping many incidents in the career of a single individual, which, after all, is a necessity of a certain sort of fiction, and pardonable so long as they are not incongruous. It is not worth discussing, besides; indeed, I never do uphold or even defend what I have done except the critic be, as you are, a friend whose objections are meant as warnings and guidings.
* ”That Boy of Norcott's,” which was just finis.h.i.+ng its serial course in ”The Cornhill Magazine.' and is coming to see me. He and 'his'n' are living with the Bloomfields, who have most hospitably taken them in till they can house themselves, which (you know) can only be done in Austria on the 24th August.
”My chances of seeing London this year decrease almost daily. My poor wife's symptoms are very threatening, and I cannot leave home now, though much pressed to pay a long-promised visit to Croatia, even for a day.
”Robert Lytton is now Secretary at Vienna,
”You don't agree with me about the proximity of war, but I know it has been twice, within the last three weeks, on the very brink of beginning.
Louis Napoleon has fallen into a state of silent despondency, in which he will give no orders, offer nothing, nor agree to anything, and R[ouher] is often left days without any instructions to guide him.
”As for Austria, she is in a terrible funk, _el du raison_. Her army is but half drilled, and the new weapon is a puzzle to the raw recruits; besides this, she has nothing that could be called a general,--nothing above the Codrington cla.s.s, which, after all, can only pull through by the pluck and bravery of British troops.
”The hatred of Prussia is so inveterate here that anything like a candid opinion as to the chances of the campaign against France is not to be looked for, but so far as I can see men would generally back the French.
How would the Whigs conduct a great war, I wonder? Certainly Cardwell and his economics would cut a sorry figure if he were called on for a big effort.