traitorous to the earnest and
affectionate regard with which you have inspired me.

"The lady's verses are accepted by the editorial potentate, and shall
presently appear." [I am ashamed to say that I totally forget who the
lady was.]

"I am not quite well, and am being touched up (or down) by the
doctors. Whether the irritation of mind I had to endure pending the
discussions of a preposterous clerical body called a Convocation, and
whether the weakened hopefulness of mankind which such a dash of the
middle ages in the colour and pattern of 1866 engenders, may have
anything to do with it, I don't know.

"What a happy man you must be in having a new house to work at. When
it is quite complete, and the roc's egg hung up, I suppose you will
get rid of it bodily and turn to at another." [_Absit omen!_ At this
very moment, while I transcribe this letter, I _am_ turning to at
another.]

"_Daily News_ correspondent" [as I then for a short time was], "Novel,
and Hospitality! Enough to do indeed! Perhaps the day _might_ be
advantageously made longer for such work--or say life." [Ah! if the
small matters rehearsed had been all, I could more contentedly have
put up with the allowance of four-and-twenty hours.] "And yet I don't
know. Like enough we should all do less if we had time to do more in.

"Layard was with us for a couple of days a little while ago, and
brought the last report of you, and of your daughter, who seems to
have made a great impression on him. I wish he had had the keepership
of the National Gallery, for I don't think his Government will hold
together through many weeks.

"I wonder whether you thought as highly of Gibson's art as the lady
did who wrote the verses. I must say that I did _not_, and that I
thought it of a mechanical sort, with no great amount of imagination
in it. It seemed to me as if he 'didn't find me' in that, as the
servants say, but only provided me with carved marble, and expected me
to furnish myself with as much idea as I could afford.

"Very faithfully yours,

"CHARLES DICKENS."

* * * * *

I do not remember the verses, though I feel confident that the lady
who sent them through me must have been a very charming person. As to
Gibson, no criticism could be sounder. I had a considerable liking for
Gibson as a man, and admiration for his character, but as regards his
ideal productions I think Dickens hits the right nail on the head.

In another l