I2'0 Meredith's "Modern Love" [1905 



still helpless to leave my bed, except for an occasional short drive, 

 propped up with pillows. I find in my Diary, 16th October, a note 

 of the death of Lady Currie, who had been Violet Fane, the best of 

 our living women poets, to whom many of my earlier sonnets had been 

 written. I had been able, too, in spite of my illness, to get the first 

 volume of my Egyptian Memoirs into print, and had been in corre- 

 spondence with Frederic Harrison about them, who pronounces them 

 " of extraordinary interest and importance, but impossible to publish 

 at present." x 



" 26th Oct. — With George I have had much interesting talk, as he 

 has been with me at Newbuildings. He showed me a letter he had 

 received from Chamberlain, saying that he (Chamberlain) had always 

 looked on George as one of his strongest supporters in the Cabinet, and 

 asking him to join him in his Tariff Campaign. On this George con- 

 sulted me, and I of course advised him to have nothing to do with 

 Chamberlain, and he has answered him that he cannot take any part 

 in the campaign, though in terms that ought not to leave Chamberlain 

 his enemy. Another interesting letter he read me was from Lord Hugh 

 Cecil, which shows him rather at a loss what political line to take, as he 

 may be unable to retain his seat at Greenwich except with the support 

 of Liberal voters, and he hints that he may have to join Rosebery. 

 This would be a great pity. I look on Lord Hugh as one clay destined 

 to lead the Conservative Party, and should like to see him and George 

 acting together. This George will probably endeavour to bring about. 

 George considers Arthur Balfour to have been very unwise in not 

 dissolving this autumn, as his chances at the coming election are get- 

 ting worse and worse. We talked also about George Curzon. The 

 quarrel between him and Kitchener, is, he says, entirely a personal one. 

 He, George, advised Curzon not to go back to India last year, and it 

 is a pity he went. He cannot understand his having been so foolish 

 as to have made the Thibet Campaign, and to have stirred up trouble 

 in Afghanistan. What Curzon will do on his return to England is a 

 problem. He thinks he would do best by taking a peerage with a seat 

 in the Lords. He asked me what I thought ought to be done in 

 India. I told him the practical thing would be to reduce expend- 

 iture. With Russia beaten in the field and revolutionized at home, the 

 Indian Army might be greatly reduced. 



" yth Nov. — To London yesterday for a new consultation and X-rays. 

 It is now pronounced that I am to remain on my back in bed for at 

 least three months, a terrible sentence. Meynell and Cockerell dined 

 with me. Meynell read us ' Modern Love,' and expounded it to us as 

 Meredith had expounded it to Mrs. Meynell. According to this the last 

 two stanzas mean that the wife, ' Madam/ commits suicide so as to 



1 The edition privately printed 1915'. 



