88 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, vi 



November 6th, for which occasion he was to return, after- 

 wards taking her abroad with him. Unfortunately, just as 

 he started, news was brought him at the railway station that 

 his second daughter, whose brilliant gifts and happy mar- 

 riage seemed to promise everything for her future, had been 

 stricken by the beginnings of an insidious and, as he too 

 truly feared, hopeless disease. Nothing could have more 

 retarded his own recovery. It was a bitter grief, referred 

 to only in his most intimate letters, and, indeed, for a time 

 kept secret even from the other members of the family. 

 Nothing was to throw a shade over the brightness of the 

 approaching wedding. 



But on his way home, he writes of that journey : 



I had to bear my incubus, not knowing what might come 

 next, until I reached Luzern, when I telegraphed for intelli- 

 gence, and had my mind set at ease as to the measures which 

 were being adopted. 



I am a tough subject, and have learned to bear a good deal 

 without crying out; but those four-and-twenty hours between 

 London and Luzern have taught me that I have yet a good deal 

 to learn in the way of " grinning and bearing." 



And although he writes, ' ; I would give a good deal not 

 to face a lot of people next week," . . . ' I have the feelings 

 of a wounded wild beast and hate the sight of all but my 

 best friends," he hid away his feelings, and made this the 

 occasion for a very witty speech, of which, alas ! I remember 

 nothing but a delightfully mixed polyglot exordium in 

 French, German, and Italian, the result, he declared, of his 

 recent excursion to foreign parts, which had obliterated the 

 recollection of his native speech. 



During his second absence he appointed his young- 

 est daughter secretary to look after necessary correspond- 

 ence, about which he forwarded instructions from time to 

 time. 



The chief matters of interest in the letters of this period 

 are accounts of health and travel, sometimes serious, more 

 often jesting, for the letters were generally written in the 

 bright intervals between his dark days : business of the 

 Royal Society, and the publication of the new edition of 



