“I was once going to be shot by a certain Charles O’Malley, but who afterwards told all the adventures of my hero as his own, with various diversions into which I had not ventured. “I was going to call O’D. ‘Terence.’ Now if the other O’D. likes to be rebaptised by that name I’m ready to stand godfather; but as my own child is before the world as Corney, I cannot change him.” XV. FLORENCE AND SPEZZIA 1865 _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, Florence, _Jan_. 6, 1866. “I have just got your kind letter. I thank you for it heartily. The second instalment of ‘Tony’ and the ‘O’Dowd’ [paper] will be time enough in March. “I am walking over the hills every day getting up my new tale; I truly think I have got on a good track. “I’ll send you a couple of short O’Ds. for February. When Parliament meets we shall not want for matter. “I send one now on ‘Tuft-hunting.’ You will see I had Whately in my head while I was doing it. “My hope and wish is to be able to begin a new story in the April No. Will this suit your book? “You can’t imagine how anxious I feel about ‘Tony.’ Let me hear from you how it is subscribed? Mudie is, I think, the novel barometer; what says he? If the book is not known as mine, all the better. At least, I have such faith in my bad luck that I would rather any one else fathered it. “If it were not for the cheer of your hearty letters I don’t know what I should do, for I am low--low!” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, _Jan_. 9, 1865. “I send you herewith three O’Ds. ‘Going into Parliament’--not bad; ‘Excursionist,’ perhaps tolerable,--but both true, so help me! “This is the 9th, and if in time to let me have a proof--well. If not, I trust to you to see that my errors be set right and my sins forgiven me. “One of the most curious trials--a case of disputed identity--is now going on in Madrid. I’d like to have given it, but I fear that the daily papers will have it, and of course we must never drink out of the same well. O’D. must be original or he is nothing, and the originality ought to be, if possible, in _matter_ as much as manner. Don’t you agree with me? “I think I have a good opening of a story,--Ireland,--to be changed, scene ii., to Cagliari in Sardinia. It is only in my _head_, and in company there with duns, usurers, attorneys, begging letters, and F. O. impertinences,--my poor skull being like a pawnbroker’s shop, where a great deal is ‘pledged’ and very little redeemable.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, _Jan_. 19,1866. “I got your note and your big cheque, and felt so lusty therewith that I actually contradicted my landlord, and conducted myself with a bumptiousness that half alarmed my family, unaware of the strong stimulant I was under. “Hech, sirs! aren’t I nervous about ‘Tony’? You made a great mistake in not putting a name on the title. It will be ascribed to me, and blackguarded in consequence.