--were overpowered with curiosity, and resolved to go. It came off in the a.s.sembly Room, now more exquisitely desolate than words can describe. Eighteen shillings was the "take." Behind a screen among the company, we heard mysterious gurglings of water before the entertainment began, and then a slippery sound which occasioned me to whisper C. C.
(who laughed in the most ridiculous manner), "Soap." It proved to be the young lady washing herself. She must have been wonderfully dirty, for she took a world of trouble, and didn"t come out clean after all--in a wretched dirty muslin frock, with blue ribbons. She was the alleged mesmeriser, and a boy who distributed bills the alleged mesmerised. It was a most preposterous imposition, but more ludicrous than any poor sight I ever saw. The boy is clearly out of pantomime, and when he pretended to be in the mesmeric state, made the company back by going in among them head over heels, backwards, half-a-dozen times, in a most insupportable way. The pianist had struck; and the manner in which the lecturer implored "some lady" to play a "polker," and the manner in which no lady would; and in which the few ladies who were there sat with their hats on, and the elastic under their chins, as if it were going to blow, is never to be forgotten. I have been writing all the morning, and am going for a walk to Ramsgate. This is a beast of a letter, but I am not well, and have been addling my head.
Ever, dear Girls, your affectionate Father.
[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.]
GAD"S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, _Friday Night, Sept. 16th, 1859._
MY DEAR WILKIE,
Just a word to say that I have received yours, and that I look forward to the reunion on Thursday, when I hope to have the satisfaction of recounting to you the plot of a play that has been laid before me for commending advice.
Ditto to what you say respecting the _Great Eastern_. I went right up to London Bridge by the boat that day, on purpose that I might pa.s.s her. I thought her the ugliest and most unshiplike thing these eyes ever beheld. I wouldn"t go to sea in her, shiver my ould timbers and rouse me up with a monkey"s tail (man-of-war metaphor), not to chuck a biscuit into Davy Jones"s weather eye, and see double with my own old toplights.
Turk has been so good as to produce from his mouth, for the wholesome consternation of the family, eighteen feet of worm. When he had brought it up, he seemed to think it might be turned to account in the housekeeping and was proud. Pony has kicked a shaft off the cart, and is to be sold. Why don"t you buy her? she"d never kick with you.
Barber"s opinion is, that them fruit-trees, one and all, is touchwood, and not fit for burning at any gentleman"s fire; also that the stocking of this here garden is worth less than nothing, because you wouldn"t have to grub up nothing, and something takes a man to do it at three-and-sixpence a day. Was "left desponding" by your reporter.
I have had immense difficulty to find a man for the stable-yard here.
Barber having at last engaged one this morning, I enquired if he had a decent hat for driving in, to which Barber returned this answer:
"Why, sir, not to deceive you, that man flatly say that he never have wore that article since man he was!"
I am consequently fortified into my room, and am afraid to go out to look at him. Love from all.
Ever affectionately.
[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.]
GAD"S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, _Sat.u.r.day, Oct. 15th, 1859._
MY DEAR REGNIER,
You will receive by railway parcel the proof-sheets of a story of mine, that has been for some time in progress in my weekly journal, and that will be published in a complete volume about the middle of November.
n.o.body but Forster has yet seen the latter portions of it, or will see them until they are published. I want you to read it for two reasons.
Firstly, because I hope it is the best story I have written. Secondly, because it treats of a very remarkable time in France; and I should very much like to know what you think of its being dramatised for a French theatre. If you should think it likely to be done, I should be glad to take some steps towards having it well done. The story is an extraordinary success here, and I think the end of it is certain to make a still greater sensation.
Don"t trouble yourself to write to me, _mon ami_, until you shall have had time to read the proofs. Remember, they are _proofs_, and _private_; the latter chapters will not be before the public for five or six weeks to come.
With kind regards to Madame Regnier, in which my daughters and their aunt unite,
Believe me, ever faithfully yours.
P.S.--The story (I daresay you have not seen any of it yet) is called "A Tale of Two Cities."
[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.]
PETERBOROUGH, _Wednesday Evening, Oct. 19th, 1859._
MY DEAR STONE,
We had a splendid rush last night--exactly as we supposed, with the pressure on the two shillings, of whom we turned a crowd away. They were a far finer audience than on the previous night; I think the finest I have ever read to. They took every word of the "Dombey" in quite an amazing manner, and after the child"s death, paused a little, and then set up a shout that it did one good to hear. Mrs. Gamp then set in with a roar, which lasted until I had done. I think everybody for the time forgot everything but the matter in hand. It was as fine an instance of thorough absorption in a fiction as any of us are likely to see ever again.
---- (in an exquisite red mantle), accompanied by her sister (in another exquisite red mantle) and by the deaf lady, (who leaned a black head-dress, exactly like an old-fashioned tea-urn without the top, against the wall), was charming. HE couldn"t get at her on account of the pressure. HE tried to peep at her from the side door, but she (ha, ha, ha!) was unconscious of his presence. I read to her, and goaded him to madness. He is just sane enough to send his kindest regards.
This is a place which--except the cathedral, with the loveliest front I ever saw--is like the back door to some other place. It is, I should hope, the deadest and most utterly inert little town in the British dominions. The magnates have taken places, and the bookseller is of opinion that "such is the determination to do honour to Mr. d.i.c.kens, that the doors _must_ be opened half an hour before the appointed time."
You will picture to yourself Arthur"s quiet indignation at this, and the manner in which he remarked to me at dinner, "that he turned away twice Peterborough last night."
A very pretty room--though a Corn Exchange--and a room we should have been glad of at Cambridge, as it is large, bright, and cheerful, and wonderfully well lighted.
The difficulty of getting to Bradford from here to-morrow, at any time convenient to us, turned out to be so great, that we are all going in for Leeds (only three-quarters of an hour from Bradford) to-night after the reading, at a quarter-past eleven. We are due at Leeds a quarter before three.
So no more at present from,
Yours affectionately.
[Sidenote: Mr. W. R. Sculthorpe.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON, W.C., _Thursday, Nov. 10th, 1859._
DEAR SIR,
Judgment must go by default. I have not a word to plead against Dodson and Fogg. I am without any defence to the action; and therefore, as law goes, ought to win it.
Seriously, the date of your hospitable note disturbs my soul. But I have been incessantly writing in Kent and reading in all sorts of places, and have done nothing in my own personal character these many months; and now I come to town and our friend[5] is away! Let me take that defaulting miscreant into council when he comes back.
Faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: Monsieur Regnier.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON, W.C., _Wednesday, Nov. 16th, 1859._
MY DEAR REGNIER,
I send you ten thousand thanks for your kind and explicit letter. What I particularly wished to ascertain from you was, whether it is likely the Censor would allow such a piece to be played in Paris. In the case of its being likely, then I wished to have the piece as well done as possible, and would even have proposed to come to Paris to see it rehea.r.s.ed. But I very much doubted whether the general subject would not be objectionable to the Government, and what you write with so much sagacity and with such care convinces me at once that its representation would be prohibited. Therefore I altogether abandon and relinquish the idea. But I am just as heartily and cordially obliged to you for your interest and friendship, as if the book had been turned into a play five hundred times. I again thank you ten thousand times, and am quite sure that you are right. I only hope you will forgive my causing you so much trouble, after your hard work.
My girls and Georgina send their kindest regards to Madame Regnier and to you. My Gad"s Hill house (I think I omitted to tell you, in reply to your enquiry) is on the very scene of Falstaff"s robbery. There is a little _cabaret_ at the roadside, still called The Sir John Falstaff.
And the country, in all its general features, is, at this time, what it was in Shakespeare"s. I hope you will see the house before long. It is really a pretty place, and a good residence for an English writer, is it not?
Macready, we are all happy to hear from himself, is going to leave the dreary tomb in which he lives, at Sherborne, and to remove to Cheltenham, a large and handsome place, about four or five hours"
railway journey from London, where his poor girls will at least see and hear some life. Madame Celeste was with me yesterday, wishing to dramatise "A Tale of Two Cities" for the Lyceum, after bringing out the Christmas pantomime. I gave her my permission and the book; but I fear that her company (troupe) is a very poor one.
This is all the news I have, except (which is no news at all) that I feel as if I had not seen you for fifty years, and that