ciled. 'Anne' (her maid) goes, and is amazingly cheerful
and light of heart upon it. And I think, at present, that it's a greater
trial to me than anybody. The 4th of January is the day. Macready's note
to Kate was received and acted upon with a perfect response. She talks
about it quite gayly, and is satisfied to have nobody in the house but
Fred, of whom, as you know, they are all fond. He has got his promotion,
and they give him the increased salary from the day on which the minute
was made by Baring, I feel so amiable, so meek, so fond of people, so
full of gratitudes and reliances, that I am like a sick man. And I am
already counting the days between this and coming home again."

He was soon, alas! to be what he compared himself to. I met him at
Rochester at the end of September, as arranged; we passed a day and
night there; a day and night in Cobham and its neighborhood, sleeping at
the Leather Bottle; and a day and night at Gravesend. But we were hardly
returned when some slight symptoms of bodily trouble took suddenly
graver form, and an illness followed involving the necessity of surgical
attendance. This, which with mention of the helpful courage displayed by
him has before been alluded to,[43] put off necessarily the Glasgow
dinner; and he had scarcely left his bedroom when a trouble arose near
home which touched him to the depths of the greatest sorrow of his life,
and, in the need of exerting himself for others, what remained of his
own illness seemed to pass away.

His wife's younger brother had died with the same unexpected suddenness
that attended her younger sister's death; and the event had followed
close upon the decease of Mrs. Hogarth's mother while on a visit to her
daughter and Mr. Hogarth. "As no steps had been taken towards the
funeral," he wrote (25th October) in reply to my offer of such service
as I could render, "I thought it best at once to bestir myself; and not
even you could have saved my going to the cemetery. It is a great trial
to me to give up Mary's grave; greater than I can possibly express. I
thought of moving her to the catacombs and saying nothing about it; but
then I remembered that the poor old lady is buried next her at her own
desire, and could not find it in my heart, directly she is laid in the
earth, to take her grandchild away. The desire to be buried next her is
as strong upon me now as it was five years ago; and I _know_ (for I
don't think there ever was love like that