1 90 EISEN B V PERSE VERANCE. 



assigned them a fourth share in whatever he might write 

 during the next eight years. Then he determined upon resting 

 awhile, and concluded upon a holiday in Italy, with his family, 

 in the following year. 



In May 1844 he presided at the Annual Conversazione of 

 the Polytechnic Institution, Birmingham, when he made an 

 admirable speech. One of the really kind acts performed by 

 Dickens this year was the writing of a preface to a volume 

 issued by Newby, written by John Overs, a working man. The 

 author was dying of consumption when it was published, and 

 did not long enjoy any little profit or fame which it brought to 

 him. 



Before his departure to Italy, he was entertained at a dinner 

 by his friends, at the 'Trafalgar,' Greenwich, on 19th June 

 1844, Lord Normanby being in the chair. Writing from 

 Genoa on the 8th October, he betrayed a strong desire to get 

 back again to the London streets, and gave an outline sketch 

 of his forthcoming Christmas story, which he purposed to name 

 The Chimes. *I like more and more,' he said, 'my notion of 

 making, in this little book, a great blow for the poor. Some- 

 thing powerful I think I can do, but I want to be tender too, 

 and cheerful ; as like the Carol in that respect as may be, and 

 as unlike it as such a thing can be.' 



The book was published at the close of the year, with 

 illustrations by MacHse, Doyle, Leech, and Stanfield. It was 

 not one of his greatest successes. As dramatized it became 

 exceedingly popular. He complained that the writing of it 

 had made his face white in a foreign land. 'My cheeks, 

 which were beginning to fill out, have sunk again; my eyes 

 have grown immensely large ; my hair is very lank ; and the 

 head inside the hair is hot and giddy.' At the close of June 



