"Your cheque came all right; I have just checked my cook with it. We have a system of living here by what they call _Cottino_, which is really comfortable enough. You pay so much a-day to your cook for feeding you and your household, and he stipulates so many _plats, &c.,_ and it's _your_ business to see that he treats you well. My rascal--a very good _artiste_--is a great politician, and everything that goes hard against the 'Left' (he is a great patriot) is revenged upon _me_ in tough beef and raw mutton, but when Garibaldi triumphs, I am fed with pheasants and woodcocks."
_To Mr John Blackwood_.
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _Dec_ 9,1864.
"Do you see how right I was in my 'O'Dowd' about Bismarck, and how now he is bullying the Diet and even Austria, and openly proclaiming how little thought there was of 'Germany' in his Danish war? And yet I believe I am the sole proprietor and patentee of the opinion, and I have not yet heard even the faintest rumour of calling me to the Queen's counsels.
"My wife is half of Mrs Blackwood's opinion, and is in no good humour with Tony personally. She thinks he married out of 'sulk,' not for inclination; but you and I know better, and if ever Tony comes to live a winter in Florence, he'll find he made the best choice.
"I half think I have the opening of a good story for you, but I want to do something really creditable and will take time. Do you remember the Dutchman that took a race of three miles to jump over the ditch, and was so tired by the preparation that he sat down at the foot of it!
"I am low, low! but if I hear good accounts of 'Tony' and O'D. it will do me good service, and I know if _you_ have them you'll not hide them.
"You will have got the end of 'Tony' by this, and I look to another letter from you to-morrow or next day.
"I meant 'Luttrell' for _you_ when I began it, but 'Tony,' I think (now), is better; but I'll see if I can't beat both for a last spring before I lie down for aye."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, _Dec_. 11,1864.
"Aytoun shall have the reversion of M'Caskey at his own price. I mean Aytoun's price, for the other estimate might be a stunner.
"Wolff--I mean Skeff--I mean to resuscitate,--that is, I think a droll paper of his unedited memoirs might one day be made amusing, and the vehicle for some very original notions on diplomacy and politics generally. He has just started to the Piraeus to see Henry Bulwer, who, like Mr Mantalini, is at the point of death for the nineteenth time. Wolff looks up to him with immense reverence as being the most consummate rogue in Europe; and this he is certainly, notwithstanding the fact that he has been detected and pronounced a hardened offender by every Government since the Duke's to Palmerston's. What robbery he wants to entrust to W. with his dying breath is hard to say; but poor Skeffy is quite eager for the inheritance,--though God help him if he thinks he can rig the thimble when his pal has gone home."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
[Undated.]
"They have sold my old house here, and I am driven to a little villa (or shall be) in about a month's time,--a small crib, nicely placed and very quiet, about a mile from the Gates.
"What fun one could make of the devil at Compiegne, talking over all L. Nap.'s plans, how he had humbugged every one--Pam, Russell, the Austrians, Emp., &c, &c.; the devil's compta, on the beauty of Paris, and how much all that luxury and splendour did for _him_. An evening with Bulwer, too, and a week at Pisa, where he dined with H. Bulwer and heard the grand project for the regeneration of Turkey--the best bit of news the devil had heard since the partition of Poland.
"I would not for a great deal have called O'D. 'Corney' had I known of the other proprietor of the name; and I suspect I know the man, and that he is a right good fellow. Nobody, however, has copyright in his name--as _I_ know, for a prebend of Lichfield wrote a socialist story and called his hero Charles Lever.
"I was once going to be shot by a certain Charles O'Malley, but who afterwards told all the adventures of my hero as his own, with various diversions into which I had not ventured.
"I was going to call O'D. 'Terence.' Now if the other O'D. likes to be rebaptised by that name I'm ready to stand godfather; but as my own child is before the world as Corney, I cannot change him."
XV. FLORENCE AND SPEZZIA 1865
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _Jan_. 6, 1866.
"I have just got your kind letter. I thank you for it heartily. The second instalment of 'Tony' and the 'O'Dowd' [paper] will be time enough in March.
"I am walking over the hills every day getting up my new tale; I truly think I have got on a good track.
"I'll send you a couple of short O'Ds. for February. When Parliament meets we shall not want for matter.
"I send one now on 'Tuft-hunting.' You will see I had Whately in my head while I was doing it.
"My hope and wish is to be able to begin a new story in the April No.
Will this suit your book?
"You can't imagine how anxious I feel about 'Tony.' Let me hear from you how it is subscribed? Mudie is, I think, the novel barometer; what says he? If the book is not known as mine, all the better. At least, I have such faith in my bad luck that I would rather any one else fathered it.
"If it were not for the cheer of your hearty letters I don't know what I should do, for I am low--low!"
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, _Jan_. 9, 1865.
"I send you herewith three O'Ds. 'Going into Parliament'--not bad; 'Excursionist,' perhaps tolerable,--but both true, so help me!
"This is the 9th, and if in time to let me have a proof--well. If not, I trust to you to see that my errors be set right and my sins forgiven me.
"One of the most curious trials--a case of disputed identity--is now going on in Madrid. I'd like to have given it, but I fear that the daily papers will have it, and of course we must never drink out of the same well. O'D. must be original or he is nothing, and the originality ought to be, if possible, in _matter_ as much as manner. Don't you agree with me?
"I think I have a good opening of a story,--Ireland,--to be changed, scene ii., to Cagliari in Sardinia. It is only in my _head_, and in company there with duns, usurers, attorneys, begging letters, and F. O.
impertinences,--my poor skull being like a pawnbroker's shop, where a great deal is 'pledged' and very little redeemable."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, _Jan_. 19,1866.
"I got your note and your big cheque, and felt so lusty therewith that I actually contradicted my landlord, and conducted myself with a bumptiousness that half alarmed my family, unaware of the strong stimulant I was under.
"Hech, sirs! aren't I nervous about 'Tony'? You made a great mistake in not putting a name on the title. It will be ascribed to me, and blackguarded in consequence.
"I am glad you like the O'D. on 'Tuft-hunting.' Of course you saw I had Whately and his tail in my eye. They were the most shameless dogs I ever forgathered with.
"Do let me hear from you about T. B. soon. You may depend on't that Corney O'Dowd's sins will be visited on Tony, and the fellows who would not dare to come out into the open and have a 'fall' with Tony will shy their stone at him now.