300 



fCHAP. XXI 



CHAPTER XXI 



18931896 



My mother's ill-health Miss Cobbe A great storm A birthday 

 letter to my mother Her better health Herbert Spencer- 

 R. B. Litchfield's illness My mother's last illness and death. 



MY mother's health was in a very uncomfortable state from 

 the autumn of 1892 until the end of 1893. She used in 

 her letters to tell me exactly how she was, but always took 

 care to chronicle her better moments. ' My nights are 

 lovely," " I am having a good day," " I am enjoying the 

 sunshine." She suffered greatly from the heat this summer. 

 After the weather changed she wrote June 20th, ' I feel 

 quite tipsy looking out at the dear black sky and drizzled 

 windows," and again " such a lovely puddle on the walk 

 and the barometer so low." 



DOWN, Aug. 6th, 1893. 



I was going to write and order Leo Maxse's National 

 Review, but F. Greenwood's article on W. E. G. is so mon- 

 strous I have held my hand. It makes him out a fiend and 

 I am afraid such violence will neutralise what is good in 

 the Review. 



Aug. 31s*, 1893 (your wedding day). 



. . . Leonard said Balfour's speech, which I thought so 

 impertinent to W. E. G., was quite charming in its manner 

 and playfulness. A Mr Paul, a Gladstonian member, sat 

 by L. and said " that is quite delightful." 



I had been all September at Down whilst my sister 

 was abroad. It was an ideal month of fine weather. My 

 mother wrote to her at the end of our time together : ' A 

 dismal day, but Sir John Lubbock says that no weather 

 is really bad, so we must not mind." 



