SYMPATHETIC DOCTORS 239 



consideration for others, he would not wake his wife, 

 who had been up several nights tending him, but 

 opened his Prayer-book and left It open at the 

 "Nunc Dimittis" — 



Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, 



thinking, as he afterwards told her, that should 

 she find that he had passed away in the night, these 

 words might be comforting. He also drew her 

 attention to words that he said expressed his 

 feelings, " Love cannot end at death. It must last 

 for ever and ever. It must grow better, and purer, 

 and stronger, until at last it is perfect in heaven." 



He came home by short stages, resting at 

 Lucerne, Basle, and Brussels, and although weak 

 and suffering he kept marvellously cheerful through 

 the long railway journeys, quite interested in passing 

 from Italian sunshine and the songs of nightingales 

 through the St. Gothard tunnel, and finding large 

 flakes of snow falling over the already snow-laden 

 pine trees of Switzerland. He constantly recalled 

 incidents of his early travels for the amusement of 

 his children, as well as historical incidents of what 

 were for so many centuries the battle-fields of 

 Europe in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. 



Finally he reached Stanhope Gardens on the 8th 

 of May, and enjoyed a brief space of joy and hope in 

 the quiet and comfort of home. But the palpitations 

 still continuing, the doctors urged complete rest for 

 the patient, and that he should not see any one 



