1885 LETTERS FROM ROME 389 



was under the impression that I was about to succumb 

 shortly to a complication of maladies, and moreover, that 

 a wooden box that my wife had just had made would 

 cost thousands of pounds in the way of payment for 

 extra luggage before we reached home. I do not know 

 which hypochondriacal possession was the most depressing. 

 I can laugh at it now, but I really was extraordinarily 

 weak and ill 



We had made up our minds to bolt from Rome to 

 Florence at once, when I suddenly got better, and to-day 

 am all right. So as we hear of snow at Florence we 

 shall stop where we are. It has been raining cats and 

 dogs here, and the Tiber rose 40 feet and inundated the 

 low grounds. But " cantabit elevatus " ; it can't touch 

 us, and at any rate the streets are washed clean. 



The climate is mild here. We have a capital room 

 and all the sunshine that is to be had, plus a good fire 

 when needful, and at worst one can always get a breezy 

 walk on the Pincio hard by. 



However, about the leave. Am I to do anything or 

 nothing ? I am dying to get back to steady occupation 

 and English food, and the sort of regimen one can maintain 

 in one's own house. On the other hand, I stand in fear 

 of the bitter cold of February and early March, and still 

 more of the thousand and one worries of London outside 

 one's work. So I suppose it will be better if I keep away 

 till Easter, or at any rate to the end of March. But I 

 must hear something definite from the H.O. I have 

 written to Donnelly to the same effect. My poor Marian's 

 relapse did not do us any good, for all that I expected it. 

 However the last accounts are very favourable. 



I wrote to Evans the other day about a re-arrange- 

 ment of the duties of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary. 

 I thought it was better to write to him than to you on 

 that subject, and I begged him to discuss the matter with 

 the officers. It is quite absurd that Stokes and you 

 should waste your time in press drudgery. 



