378 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVI 



the wedding, for my nervous system is in the condition 

 of that of a frog under opium. 



But my R. must not go off without the paternal 

 benediction. 



For the first three weeks he was alone, his wife 

 staying to make preparations for the third daughter's 

 wedding on November 6th, for which occasion he 

 was to return, afterwards 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 marriage 

 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 intelligence, 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." 



