XIX. TRIESTE 1869
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, Jan. 4, 1869.
“Thanks twice over for your note and enclosure. Your hearty sympathy is a very great comfort to me. I suppose I am getting better, but I suffer a good deal, and find it hard to struggle against depression. I am an ungrateful dog after all, for my poor wife is decidedly better, and I ought to be satisfied and thankful for a mercy that any suffering of my own is a cheap price.
“Imagine Charles Mathews asked to pay at the door of the Adelphi, and you can fancy my horror at feeing doctors! But it has come to this with me, and you may suppose how the fact adds bitterness to illness.
“I hope you will like the O’Ds. I sent you, and that they may not savour of that break-up which is threatening me.
“They say that I must give up work for some considerable time; but till they can show me how I am to live in the interval (even with a diminished appetite), I demur.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, Jan. 19,1869.