348 GEOEGE JOHN KOMANES 1893 



not try to express it, lest you should think that my 

 judgment must have been impaired. But the upshot 

 is that, if I am to die soon, I shall be certain that 

 there is no one in the wide world who, for bravery, 

 devotion, and sound sense, is better capable of doing 

 all that can be done for the children. 



With many and sincerest thanks to Mrs. Huxley 

 and yourself for your truly kind sympathy, 



I remain, yours ever the same, 



GEOEGE J. EOMANES. 



Then came the journey to Costebelle, which he 

 describes as follows : 



To James Bomanes, Esq. 



Hotel l'Ermitage, Costebelle : November 4, 1893. 



My dearest James, — I ought to have answered 

 long ago the kind letter which I received from you 

 just as I was driving to the Oxford station, and read 

 in the train. But I am still such a wretched invalid 

 that I shrink from the smallest exertion, whether of 

 body or mind. I caught a violent cold in crossing 

 the Channel, which kept me in bed for three days at 

 Amiens, and left me so weak that I had to further 

 break the journey at Paris, Lyons, and Marseilles — 

 finally arriving here with a still feverish temperature. 

 But this has now subsided. 



"We found not only Paris but quite as much Lyons 

 and Marseilles in a state of delirium over the Eussian 

 fleet officers, with whom we were muddled up all the 

 way, greatly to our inconvenience. This was espe- 



