Monday was the result.

Best love from all.
Ever affectionately.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. Wilkie Collins.]

BOULOGNE, _Tuesday, Sept. 26th, 1854._

MY DEAR COLLINS,

First, I have to report that I received your letter with much pleasure.

Secondly, that the weather has entirely changed. It is so cool that we
have not only a fire in the drawing-room regularly, but another to dine
by. The delicious freshness of the air is charming, and it is generally
bright and windy besides.

Thirdly, that ----'s intellectual faculties appear to have developed
suddenly. He has taken to borrowing money; from which I infer (as
he has no intention whatever of repaying) that his mental powers are
of a high order. Having got a franc from me, he fell upon Mrs. Dickens
for five sous. She declining to enter into the transaction, he
beleaguered that feeble little couple, Harry and Sydney, into paying
two sous each for "tickets" to behold the ravishing spectacle of an
utterly-non-existent-and-there-fore-impossible-to-be-produced toy
theatre. He eats stony apples, and harbours designs upon his
fellow-creatures until he has become light-headed. From the couch
rendered uneasy by this disorder he has arisen with an excessively
protuberant forehead, a dull slow eye, a complexion of a leaden hue, and
a croaky voice. He has become a horror to me, and I resort to the most
cowardly expedients to avoid meeting him. He, on the other hand, wanting
another franc, dodges me round those trees at the corner, and at the
back door; and I have a presentiment upon me that I shall fall a
sacrifice to his cupidity at last.

On the Sunday night after you left, or rather on the Monday morning at
half-past one, Mary was taken _very ill_. English cholera. She was
sinking so fast, and the sickness was so exceedingly alarming, that it
evidently would not do to wait for Elliotson. I caused everything to be
done that we had naturally often thought of, in a lonely house so full
of children, and fell back upon the old remedy; though the difficulty of
giving even it was rendered very great by the frightful sickness. Thank
God, she recovered so favourably that by breakfast time she was fast
asleep. She slept twenty-four hours, and has never had the least
uneasiness since. I heard--of course afterwards--that she had had an
attack of sickness two nights before.