“A millionaire countryman of yours has actually beggared me at whist, and the d------d ass can’t play at all.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Florence, _March_ 10,1866. “I have corrected this without my wife’s aid, for she is too weak and poorly to help me, and it will require careful looking over. I am glad you like it; I rather think well of it on re-reading. “I believe my holiday is knocked up, and a chance of O’Dowding the Pope to be deferred, for I must hasten off to Spezzia to meet a Royal Commission on the Arsenal. I hope I may have the O’D. proof before I go, as I may be detained a week. “Have you any weekly [‘Saturday Review,’ ‘Examiner,’ Spectator,’ or other) that has literary news, reviews, &c. disposable? if so, and perfectly convenient, send it to me occasionally, for I get too much ‘bent’ in politics,--_malgré moi._ “I really would rather be porter to the House than a lord-in-waiting.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, _March_ 14, 1866. “A patchwork quilt is cakes and gingerbread compared to this blessed proof, but I’m in and out a Georges Dandin! You said, and said truly, that the sketch of the House was meagre, and I have dilated--I hope not diluted--it; but my writing is open to that rendering. “I have made the ‘Fenian Pest’ also a little fatter. Will you try and see that the slips come on at their proper places. “I am not well. It may be gout, it may be fifty things, but it _feels_ d------ly like breaking up. I ought to be at Spezzia, but I am so out of sorts that I don’t like leaving home. After all, I have no right to complain. I have been a good many years in commission, and never docked yet for repairs! “Dizzy is going to let Gladstone have a walk over for the first racing, but I suspect that the real jockeyship will be to make the first and last heats the race.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, _March_ 26, 1866. “It is only to-day that I feel able to write a line and thank you. Your letter and cheque reached me two days ago, but I did not like to make my daughter write to you lest you should feel alarmed at it. “I am a little better,--I am, that is to say, in less pain, but very weak and low. I believe I shall rub through it, but it must be a close thing. It was, after all, only what Curran called ‘a runaway knock.’ but it sounded wonderfully as if I was wanted. “They don’t talk any more of knife-work, and, so far, I am easier in mind; but my nerves are so shaken by pain and bad nights that whatever promised relief would be welcome. “I have two chaps, of ‘Sir B.’ ready, but perhaps next week--I hope so--I will be able to go on. It would be a comfort to me to be at work.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, Florence, _April_ 5,1866.