l see in the first two or three lines of the enclosed
first subject, with what idea I am ploughing along. It is difficult; but
a new way of doing it, it strikes me, and likely to be pretty."

And then, after three days more, came something of a damper to his
spirits, as he thus toiled along. He saw public allusion made to a
review that had appeared in the _Times_ of his Christmas book, and it
momentarily touched what he too truly called his morbid susceptibility
to exasperation. "I see that the 'good old Times' are again at issue
with the inimitable B. Another touch of a blunt razor on B.'s nervous
system.--Friday morning. Inimitable very mouldy and dull. Hardly able to
work. Dreamed of _Timeses_ all night. Disposed to go to New Zealand and
start a magazine." But soon he sprang up, as usual, more erect for the
moment's pressure; and after not many days I heard that the number was
as good as done. His letter was very brief, and told me that he had
worked so hard the day before (Tuesday, the 12th of January), and so
incessantly, night as well as morning, that he had breakfasted and lain
in bed till midday. "I hope I have been very successful." There was but
one small chapter more to write, in which he and his little friend were
to part company for ever; and the greater part of the night of the day
on which it was written, Thursday the 14th, he was wandering desolate
and sad about the streets of Paris. I arrived there the following
morning on my visit; and as I alighted from the malle-poste, a little
before eight o'clock, found him waiting for me at the gate of the
post-office bureau.

I left him on the 2nd of February with his writing-table in readiness
for number six; but on the 4th, enclosing me subjects for illustration,
he told me he was "not under weigh yet. Can't begin." Then, on the 7th,
his birthday, he wrote to warn me he should be late. "Could not begin
before Thursday last, and find it very difficult indeed to fall into the
new vein of the story. I see no hope of finishing before the 16th at the
earliest, in which case the steam will have to be put on for this short
month. But it can't be helped. Perhaps I shall get a rush of
inspiration. . . . I will send the chapters as I write them, and you
must not wait, of course, for me to read the end in type. To transfer to
Florence, instantly, all the previous interest, is what I am aiming at.
For that, all sorts of other points must be thrown aside in this number.
.