1884 SENT TO ITALY 377 



The " Indian summer " l to which he looked 

 forward was not to be reached without passing 

 through a season of more than equinoctial storms 

 and tempests. His career had reached its highest 

 point only to be threatened with a speedy close. 

 He himself did not expect more than two or three 

 years' longer lease of life, and went by easy stages 

 to Venice, where he spent eight days. "No place," 

 he writes, " could be better fitted for a poor devil as 

 sick in body and mind as I was when I got there." 



Venice itself (he writes to Dr. Foster) just suited me. 

 I chartered a capital gondolier, and spent most of my 

 time exploring the Lagoons. Especially I paid a daily 

 visit to the Lido, and filled my lungs with the sea air, 

 and rejoiced in the absence of stinks. For Venice is like 

 her population (at least the male part of it), handsome 

 but odorous. Did you notice how handsome the young 

 men are and how little beauty there is among the 

 women ? 



I stayed eight days in Venice and then returned by 

 easy stages first to Padua, where I wanted to see Giotto's 

 work, then to Verona, and then here (Lugano). Verona 

 delighted me more than anything I have seen, and we 

 will spend two other days there as we go back. 



As for myself, I really have no positive complaint 

 now. I eat well and I sleep well, and I should begin 

 to think I was malingering, if it were not for a sort of 

 weariness and deadness that hangs about me, accompanied 

 by a curious nervous irritability. 



I expect that this is the upshot of the terrible anxiety 

 I have had about my daughter M . 



I would give a great deal to be able to escape facing 



1 See page 360. 



