have all her friends out to stop with her; she will go to Montpellier, New York, Charleston, which she remembered agreed so well with her. But it was really to Paris that her heart turned with most yearning; and there, it was said, those who had worshipped and bowed before the enchantress in her day of triumph were now become oblivious and indifferent. She wrote the following letter to him she loved from Thebes on the 10th March:—
For the last eighteen months they have been trying to make the coffin destined to receive me when I am dead. The carpenter, I think, must have struck work, he is so long about it, and meantime I am utterly worn out, and only long to lie down in a horizontal position for ever. I wish for nothing now; and, really, to drag on the animal life I am obliged to submit to since the development of this long, painful, and sad illness—better, a hundred times, be nailed down in one's coffin, and put to sleep with the mummies round me. I may not die of consumption, but will certainly die of ennui. A wonderful solitude surrounds me. Remember, I am alone with Rose, a cook, and a Polish doctor. Still, I have constantly before my eyes a blue sky, a delicious atmosphere, and this strong, gentle river, that bears on its bosom the poor invalid's boat as softly as a mother carries her first-born. But these awe-inspiring memories of ancient Egypt, these heaps of ruins, these colossal figures cut out of the granite rock, are all too overwhelming for a crushed spirit and weakened body. * * *
You would have wept had you seen me carried on board the vessel to go to Alexandria. I really cannot imagine what my frail body is made of. Life is so tenacious. I had no idea anyone could suffer like this and not die a thousand times. I must leave you now. I am seized by a fit of coughing that makes me hot and cold.
Then she gives the following translation of an Arab legend:—
Colombe blanche, où vas-tu? Tes ailes frappent l'air à pleines volées et t'emportent plus loin, plus loin, plus loin.
La Colombe.—"Je vais où il m'attend, au delà des nues plus loin, plus loin, plus loin."
