“Trieste, Dec. 11, 1871.
“I was indeed surprised at the address of your letter, but I should have been more than surprised—overjoyed—had I seen yourself, and I am sorely sorry you did not come on here. Do let it be for another time, and ask Mrs Blackwood to have a craving desire to see Venice and the Titians, and take me as an accident of the road.
“I am getting too ill for work, but not for the pleasure of seeing my friends, and there is nothing does me the same good.
“I see no difficulty in writing to you about Austria, but not as O’Dowd,—gravely, soberly, and, if I could, instructingly. But I must wait for a little health and a little energy, or I should be only steaming with half-boiler power.
“I see little prospect now of getting better, and all I have to do is to scramble along with as much of health as remains to me, and not bore my friends or myself any more on the matter. Sending the divers down to report how thin my iron plating is, is certainly not the way to encourage me to a new voyage.
“Like a kind fellow, send me George Eliot’s new book. There is nothing like her.”
XXII. TRIESTE 1872
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, Jan. 31, 1872.