1861 A POOR CLIENT 335 



that will not cook the dinner, however much it may 

 prepare me for being cooked elsewhere. To complete 

 my disgust at things in general, my wife is regularly 

 knocked up with dining out twice this week, though it 

 was only in the quietest way. I shall have to lock her 

 up altogether. 



X has made a horrid mess of it, and I am sorry 



to say, from what I know of him, that I cannot doubt 

 where the fault lies. The worst of it is that he has a 

 wife and three children over here, left without a penny 

 or any means of support. The poor woman wrote to 

 me the other day, and when I went to see her I found 

 her at the last shilling and contemplating the workhouse 

 as her next step. She has brothers in Australia, and it 

 appeared to me that the only way to do her any good was 

 to get her out. She cannot starve there, and there will be 

 more hope for her children than an English poor-house. 

 I am going to see if the Emigration Commissioners will 

 do anything for her, as of course it is desirable to cut 

 down the cost of exportation to the smallest amount. 



It is most lamentable that a man of so much ability 



should have so utterly damned himself as X has, but 



he is hopelessly Celtic. 



I shall be at the Phil. Club next Thursday. Ever 

 yours faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



14 WAA^ERLEY PLACE, 

 Monday morning [Nov. 1861], 



MY DEAR HOOKER The obstinate manner in which 

 Mrs. Hooker and you go on refusing to give any address 

 leads us to believe that you are dwelling peripatetically 

 in a " Wan " with green door and brass knocker some- 

 where on Wormwood Scrubbs, and that " Kew " is only 

 a blind. So you see I am obliged to inclose Mrs. Hooker's 

 epistle to you. 



You shall have your own way about the dinner, 

 though we shall have triumphed over all domestic 



