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PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. IX. 
him with Princess May and the Duke of Teck, 
and stayed for some time and talked at his bed- 
side. This visit Sir Richard greatly appreciated, 
and when he was told that His Royal Highness 
was downstairs and wished to see him, he put 
his black velvet skull-cap straight, smoothed 
his hair, and said : ‘ Then I must try and pull 
myself together.’ 
Although his deafness made conversation very 
difficult on this occasion, he was still able to con- 
verse for a short time with his royal visitors. 
During the whole of his illness the Duke 
and Duchess of Teck and Princess May fre- 
quently came to Sheen Lodge, and were often 
good enough to stay and talk with him. 
Towards the end of November he seemed to 
be not so well again, and complained of coldness 
in the extremities. Any attempts at conversation 
now exhausted him exceedingly ; he began to 
take less and less nourishment, and from the first 
week of December he never exhibited the smallest 
disposition to rally. On December i6 he ceased 
to recognise those that were standing round him, 
and became very restless. Soon after his breath- 
ing became stertorous, and it was plain that the 
end could not be far off. A little before three 
o’clock on Sunday morning, December i8, 1892, 
he passed peacefully away, without a struggle, 
leaving the world poorer by the loss of an untiring 
worker and of a most genial and kind-hearted man. 
