Birds of a chirrup are treacle and syrup;
The hawk and the owl sit cheek by jowl.
Yours ever,
Alexander and Lily Tex.
The next letter was from his wife and brought the news that Teixeira’s health had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. His life was not in immediate danger, but henceforward he must regard himself as an invalid and must work under the conditions imposed by his doctor.
X
As soon as he was well enough to be moved, Teixeira came up from Hove and, after a few days in Chelsea, went to a nursing-home in Crowborough for the summer.
Nothing is more characteristic of him than that the first message he sent after the beginning of his illness was one of reassurance and optimism:
Sent you a wire this morning, he writes, lest you be seriously distressed. Really much better after nine hours’ sleep.... I expect I shall be quite well by Saturday, when we return but I shall have to be jolly careful....
Thanks for your letters, he writes, 8.5.20, when we were arranging to meet. Nothing you can do for me at present except converse with me in the form of: Tex. Very short questions: Stephen. Very long answers. I’m getting plaguily impatient at the slowness of my recovery: it’s very wrong, wicked and impatient of me.