e so much fatigue from work, that I am resolved not even to see
him, but to please myself. I find, my child (as Horace Walpole would
say), that I have written you nothing here, but you will take the will
for the deed."

[163] The rest of the letter may be allowed to fill the corner of a
note. The allusions to Rogers and Landor are by way of reply to an
invitation I had sent him. "I am extremely sorry to hear about Fox.
Shall call to enquire, as I come by to the Temple. And will call on you
(taking the chance of finding you) on my way to that Seat of Boredom. I
wrote my paper for _H. W._ yesterday, and have begun _Copperfield_ this
morning. Still undecided about Dora, but MUST decide to-day. La
difficulte d'ecrire l'Anglais m'est extremement ennuyeuse. Ah, mon Dieu!
si l'on pourrait toujours ecrire cette belle langue de France! Monsieur
Rogere! Ah! qu'il est homme d'esprit, homme de genie, homme des lettres!
Monsieur Landore! Ah qu'il parle Francais--pas parfaitement comme un
ange--un peu (peut-etre) comme un diable! Mais il est bon
garcon--serieusement, il est un de la vraie noblesse de la nature. Votre
tout devoue, CHARLES. A Monsieur Monsieur Fos-tere."

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

Pages 47-48, word split over two pages was mistyped. Word "yester-
terday" changed to "yesterday" (Ditto yesterday; except)

Footnote 116, "inim table" changed to "inimitable" (facetiousness of the
inimitable)

Page 310, "Nove ber" changed to "November" (21st of November)

Page 311, "hem" changed to "them" (perfect joy in them)

Footnote 139, "Edi burgh" changed to "Edinburgh" (Lord Cockburn.
"EDINBURGH)

Footnote 143, "l ght" changed to "light" (Wellbred's light ease)

To retain the integrity of the original text, varied hyphenations,
capitalizations, and, at times, spellings were retained.

For example:

Varied hyphenation and capitalization of Devonshire Terrace was
retained. Also fac-simile and facsimile. Varied spelling of
A'Beckett/A'Becket was retained.

*****

Transcriber's Note:

For the reader: Italic text is surrounded by _underscores_, bold text is
surrounded by =equal signs= and underlined text is surrounded by
~tildes~. Two breves above the letter e are indicated by [)e] in the
text.

THE LIFE

OF

[Illustration: Signature: Charles Dickens]

THE LIFE

OF

CHARLES DICKENS

BY

JOHN FORSTER.