Miss HEATHORN and her parents reached England at 

 the beginning of May 1855, and took up their abode 

 at 8 Titchfield Terrace, not far from Huxley's own 

 lodgings and his brother's house. One thing, how- 

 ever, filled Huxley with dismay. Miss Heathorn's 

 health had broken down utterly, and she looked at 

 death's door. All through the preceding year she 

 had been very ill ; she had gone with friends, Mr. 

 and Mrs. Wise, to the newly-opened mining-camp at 

 Bathurst, and she and Mrs. Wise were indeed the 

 first women to visit it; returning to Sydney after 

 rather a rough time, she caught a chill, and being 

 wrongly treated by a doctor of the blood-letting, 

 calomel-dosing school, she was reduced to a shadow, 

 and only saved by another practitioner, who reversed 

 the treatment just in time. 



In his letters to her, Huxley had not at first 



realised the danger she had been in ; and afterwards 



tried to keep her spirits up by a cheerful optimism 



that would only look forward to their joyful union 



184 



