SIGNS OF ILL HEALTH. 437 



alone, or, take my word for it, they will kill you 

 before another year has passed away." ^ 



Her words were, indeed, prophetic, and they 

 have often reminded me of the last interview I 

 ever had with his Lordship at Harcourt House, 

 on which occasion Mr Disraeli was present. I 

 had been much distressed on perceiving the de- 

 teriorating effect upon Lord George's health pro- 

 duced by his long-sustained and close application, 

 by his confinement to his own room, hour after 

 hour, without getting a breath of fresh air, and 

 by his neglecting to take necessary nourishment. 

 His countenance was no longer animated, cheerful, 

 and suffused with the glow of health, as when he 

 spent long hours in exercise on the invigorating 

 Goodwood Downs. Furthermore, his piercing, in- 

 terrogating eye, which looked you through and 

 through, had lost its lustre. On the occasion 

 above referred to I entered the room at Harcourt 

 House, and found his Lordship seated on one side 

 of the fireplace and Mr Disraeli on the other. 

 The floor was literally covered with papers, letters, 

 and documents, and a kind of rampart built up 

 with blue books ran between me and his Lordship. 

 As I hesitated to approach for fear of displacing 

 some of these barriers, he said to me in a re- 

 assuring tone, " Come up nearer, John ; don't be 

 afraid of stepping over the piles of books or 



1 For information as to this incident I owe my best thanks to 

 Mr Edmund Tattersall, who witnessed it, and repeated it to me. 



