to
him, his last book, _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, was the chief
occupation. It hardly promised to become a masterpiece (Longfellow's
opinion) as did Thackeray's _Denis Duval_, but contained much fine
descriptive technique, grouped round a scene of which Dickens had an
unrivalled sympathetic knowledge.

In March and April 1870 Dickens, as was his wont, was mixing in the best
society; he dined with the prince at Lord Houghton's and was twice at
court, once at a long deferred private interview with the queen, who had
given him a presentation copy of her _Leaves from a Journal of our Life
in the Highlands_ with the inscription "From one of the humblest of
authors to one of the greatest"; and who now begged him on his
persistent refusal of any other title to accept the nominal distinction
of a privy councillor. He took for four months the Milner Gibsons' house
at 5 Hyde Park Place, opposite the Marble Arch, where he gave a
brilliant reception on the 7th of April. His last public appearance was
made at the Royal Academy banquet early in May. He returned to his
regular methodical routine of work at Gad's Hill on the 30th of May, and
one of the last instalments he wrote of _Edwin Drood_ contained an
ominous speculation as to the next two people to die at Cloisterham:
"Curious to make a guess at the two, or say at one of the two." Two
letters bearing the well-known superscription "Gad's Hill Place, Higham
by Rochester, Kent" are dated the 8th of June, and, on the same
Thursday, after a long spell of writing in the Chalet where he
habitually wrote, he collapsed suddenly at dinner. Startled by the
sudden change in the colour and expression of his face, his
sister-in-law (Miss Hogarth) asked him if he was ill; he said "Yes, very
ill," but added that he would finish dinner and go on afterwards to
London. "Come and lie down," she entreated; "Yes, on the ground," he
said, very distinctly; these were the last words he spoke, and he slid
from her arms and fell upon the floor. He died at 6-10 P.M. on Friday,
the 9th of June, and was buried privately in Poets' Corner, Westminster
Abbey, in the early morning of the 14th of June. One of the most
appealing memorials was the drawing by his "new illustrator" Luke Fildes
in the _Graphic_ of "The Empty Chair; Gad's Hill: ninth of June, 1870."
"Statesmen, men of science, philanthropists, the acknowledged
benefactors of their race, might pass away, and yet not leave the void
which will be cau