He was alone at Geanies for a few days before leaving for Edinburgh, and a letter written at this time shows for the first time a foreboding of failing health; but when the headaches left him the foreboding vanished, and there was no real idea of serious mischief. _To his Wife._ Geanies: November 1890. I really have three of your dear letters to answer. I did not write yesterday. I have had one continuous headache; it is now nearly away, but the matter is getting serious, and I have written to Edward,[84] to send the 'home trainer' to Oxford, so that I may lose no time in giving his cure (exercise) a trial. Don't get low about me; I begin to doubt if these headaches are due to gout at all, and somehow or other I shall find a means of preventing them. I am sorry for myself, my work, and most of all for you; but we must take illness as it comes, and be glad it is no worse. Geanies: October 31. I will not disappoint you about the sonnet, which you expect to be in the vein of 'Weltschmerz,' and therefore send you the first of the series which I wrote in the small hours, after reading your favourite Psalm.[85] There was only one verse that remained appropriate to me, so I took it as a text. The principal thing that has happened to-day is my having seen on the shore a sea otter. It was lying on a rock, and I came upon it at such close quarters I could have hit it with a stone. But it was so quick that I had not even time to fire my gun. I may return the compliment as to letters. I did not intend to send the sonnet even to you when I wrote it, but afterwards thought I ought to have no secrets. Fritz[86] and Ernest came out shooting. I am all right as to hitting;[87] and my head is perfectly well. Jack[88] has been very Jackish. I told him we were all going to leave Geanies. He said, 'Geanies belongs to us.' I answered, 'No, it belongs to the Murrays.' 'Part of it belongs to me,' he continued. 'How is that?' said I. 'Because I was born here.' What would Victor Horsley say to this for early appreciation of rights conferred by birth? Ernest and Gerald are very happy. I allow them to play with the fire when they are with me, and this I find to be very popular. _To Mrs. Romanes._ Edinburgh: November 23, 1890. My lectures are now concluded, and I took an affectionate farewell of the class amid much enthusiasm on their side. There is no news to give. I play chess with Mrs. Butcher and read MSS. which Professor Butcher lends me of his own; pay many calls, have sundry talks with professors that come to dine with Ewart, and so on. Yesterday we had here what at Cambridge used to be called a 'Perpendicular,' twenty students to supper. Mrs. Butcher and Miss Trench came in to help to entertain them; the latter sang Irish songs. I am going to give an additional lecture to the class on the controversy in 'Nature.'[89]