"These are small worries, but _they are_ worries in their way, and sometimes more than mere worries to a man like myself who takes a considerable time to settle down, and hates being disturbed afterwards.
It never was a matter of surprise to me that story of the prisoner who, after twenty year"s confinement, refused to accept his liberty! And for this reason: if I had been a Papist I"d never have spent a farthing to get me out of Purgatory, for I know I"d have taken to the place after a while, and made myself a sort of life that would have been very endurable.
"You will see from this that "Sir B." is not advancing. How can he, when I am badgered about from post to pillar? But once settled, you"ll see how I"ll work. It"s time I should say I had your cheque all right; and as to "Sir B.," it shall be all as you say.
"I am sorely put out by "Tony" not doing better. I can understand scores of people not caring for O"Dowd, just as I have heard in Society such talk as O"D. voted a bore. Englishmen resent a smartness as a liberty: the man who tries a jest in their company has been guilty of a freedom not pardonable. But surely "Tony" is as good trash as the other trash vendors are selling; his nonsense is as readable nonsense as theirs.
I am not hopeful of hitting it off better this time, though I have a glimmering suspicion that "Sir Brooke" will be bad enough to succeed.
"Skene and Preston came out to me one evening. I wish I had seen more of them. We laughed a good deal, though I was depressed and out of sorts.
"Of course if Hudson goes "yourwards" I"ll make him known to you. What a misfortune for all who love the best order of fun that he was not poor enough to be obliged to write for his bread! His letters are better drollery than any of us can do, and full of caricature ill.u.s.trations far and away beyond the best things in "Punch." Who knows but one of these days we may meet at the same mahogany; and if we should------
"I forget if I told you I have a prospect of a few days in town towards the beginning of May--my positively last appearance in England, before I enter upon that long engagement in the great afterpiece where there are no Tony Butlers nor any O"Dowds.
"I do hope I shall see you: no fault of mine will it be if I fail."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, April 10, 1866.
"Send for No. 1 of "The Excursionist," edited by a Mr Cook, and if you don"t laugh, "you"re no" the man I thought ye." He pitches in to me most furiously for my O"Dowd on the "Convict Tourists"; and seeing the tone of his paper, I only wonder he did not make the case actionable.
"He evidently believes that I saw him and his "drove Bulls," and takes the whole in the most serious light. Good Heavens! what a public he represents.
"The extracts he gives from the T. B."s article are far more _really_ severe than anything I wrote, because the sn.o.b who wrote them was a _bona fide_ witness of the atrocious sn.o.bs around him; and as for the tourist who asks, "Is this suit of clothes good enough for Florence, Mr Cook?" I could make a book on him.
"The fellow is frantic, that is clear.
"Heaven grant that I may fall in with his tourists! I"ll certainly go and dine at any _table d"hote_ I find them at in Florence.
"I have been so put out (because my landlord will insist on putting me out) by change of house that I have not been able to write a line."
_To Mr John Blackwood_.
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _April_ 14,1865.
"After the affecting picture Skene drew of you over one of my inscrutable MSS., I set the governess to work to copy out a chapter of "Sir B.," which I now send; the remainder of the No. for July I shall despatch to-morrow or next day at farthest. That done, I shall rest and do no more for a little while, as my story needs digestion.
"I have asked for a short leave. I am not sure the answer may not be, "You are never at your post, and your request is mere surplusage, and n.o.body knows or cares where you are," &c. If, however, "My Lord" should not have read "The Rope Trick," and if he should be courteously disposed to accord me my few weeks of absence, and if I should go,--it will be at once, as I am anxious to be in town when the world of Parliament is there, when there are men to talk to and to listen to. I want greatly to see you: I"m not sure that it is not one of my primest objects in my journey.
"All this, however, must depend on F. O., which, to say truth, owes me very little favour or civility. I have been idle latterly--not from choice indeed; but my wife has been very poorly, and there is nothing so entirely and hopelessly disables me as a sick house: the very silence appals me."
_To Mr John Blackwood,_
"Villa Morelli, _April_ 23,1865.
"I send you a short story. I have made it O"Dowdish, but you shall yourself decide if it would be better unconnected with O"D. It would not make a bad farce; and Buckstone as "Joel," and Paul Bedford as "Victor Emanuel," would make what the c.o.c.kneys call a "screamer."
"I have not yet heard anything of my leave, but if I get it at once, and _am forced to utilise it immediately_, my plan would be to go over to Ireland (where I am obliged to go on business), finish all I have to do there, and be back by the 20th to meet you in London. I cannot say how delighted I should be to go down to you in Scotland. I"d like to see you with your natural background,--a man is always best with his own accessories,--but it mauna be. I can"t manage the time. Going, as I do, from home with my poor wife such a sufferer is very anxious work, and though I have deferred it for the last five years, I go now--if I do go--with great fear and uneasiness. It requires no small self-restraint to say "No" to so pleasant a project, and for G.o.d"s sake don"t try and tempt me any more!"
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, _May_ 6,1865.
"I suppose (from your silence) that you imagine me in, or about to be in, England. But no; thanks to "The Rope Trick," perhaps, my Lord has not vouchsafed any reply to my asking for leave, and here I am still.
It is the more provoking because, in the expectation of a start, I idled the last ten days, and now find it hard to take up my bed and walk, uncured by the vagabondage I looked for.
"Besides this, I had received a very warm and pressing invitation to I know not what celebrations in Ireland, and meant to have been there by the opening of the Exhibition. However, the F. O. won"t have it, and here I am.
"I am deucedly disposed to throw up my tuppenny consulate on every ground, but have not the pluck, from really a want of confidence in myself, and what I may _be_ this day twelve months, if I _be_ at all.
"Write to me at all events, and with proof, since if "the leave" does not arrive to-morrow or next day, I"ll not avail myself of it.
"If I could hear O"D. was doing flourishing I"d pitch F. O. to the devil by return of post."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _May_ 10,1866.
"When this comes to hand I hope to be nearer you than I am now. My address will be care of Alexander Spencer, Esq., 32 North Frederick Street, Dublin. Any proofs--and I hope for some--will find me there.
"F. O. meant to bully, and _did_ bully me; but, after all, one must say that there is an impression that I wrote "Tony Butler," and as I am indolent to contradict it, _que voulez-vous?_ I only got my blessed leave to-day, and go to-morrow. Never feeling sure that I should be able to go, I have left everything to the last, and now I am overwhelmed with things to do.
"My stay in Ireland will be probably a week, and I hope to be in London by the end of the month. Let me know your plans and your places.
"I am a (something) at the Irish Exhibition (remind me to tell you a story of the D. of Richmond at Rotterdam, which won"t do to write); and perhaps it would not be seemly to O"Dowd the Dubliners."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Morrison"s, Dublin, _May_ 21,1865.
"My movements are to go up to London by Wednesday next. I have a fortnight at least to give to London, but don"t mulct any engagements on my account, but let me see you on your "off days."
"I sent off the "Hero-worship," corrected, by yesterday"s mail, but added in the envelope a prayer to whomever it might concern not to trust to my hasty revisal, but to look to the orthographies closely, and especially to make Mr Jack "Mr Joel," as he ought to be.
"Heaven reward you for sending me money! I wonder how you knew I lost 40 last Wednesday night at whist at a mess. I shall, I hope, have wherewithal to pa.s.s me on to my parish, but no more.
"The Exhibition here is really good, and very tasteful and pretty. The weather is, however, atrocious, and I am half choked with a cold.