“My wife is a little better—that is, she can move about unassisted and has less suffering. Her malady, however, is not checked. The others are well. As for myself, I am in great bodily health,—lazy and indolent, as I always was, and more given to depressions, perhaps, but also more patient under them than I used to be.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Florence, Saturday, July 30.
“Yours has just come. O’D. is very handsome. Confound the public if they won’t like them! Nothing could be neater and prettier than the book. How I long to hear some good tidings of it!
“My daughter had a slight relapse, but is now doing all well and safely.
“I think that the Irish papers—‘The Dub. E. Mail’ and ‘Express’—would review us if copies were sent, and perhaps an advertisement.
“I know you’ll let me hear, so I don’t importune you for news.
“Your cheque came all safe; my thanks for it. The intense heat is such now that I can only write late at night, and very little then.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Villa Morelli, Aug. 3, 1864.