r's at Norwood. His
dejection was abysmal. Says Miss Stisted, "Strong, brave man though
he was, the shock of his sudden recall told upon him cruelly. Not even
during his last years, when his health had all but given way, was he so
depressed. Sleep being impossible, he used to sit up, sometimes alone,
sometimes with Sir H. Stisted, until the small hours of the morning,
smoking incessantly. Tragedy was dashed with comedy; one night a
terrible uproar arose. The dining-room windows had been left open,
the candles alight, and the pug asleep under the table forgotten. A
policeman, seeing the windows unclosed, knocked incessantly at the
street door, the pug awoke and barked himself hoarse, and everyone
clattered out of his or her bedroom to ascertain the cause of the
disturbance. My uncle had quite forgotten that in quiet English
households servants retire to rest before 3 a.m." [246] Subsequently
Lady Stisted and her daughters resided at Folkestone, and thenceforth
they were "the Folky Folk." Burton also took an early opportunity to
visit his brother, and tried to lead him into conversation; but nothing
could break that Telamonian silence.

65. Reduced to L15.

Mrs. Burton, who had returned to Damascus "to pay and pack," now arrived
in England, bringing with her very imprudently her Syrian maid Khamoor.
The L16,000 left by Burton's father, the L300 Mrs. Burton took out with
her, and the Damascus L1,200 a year, all had been spent. Indeed, Mrs.
Burton possessed no more than the few pounds she carried about her
person. In these circumstances prudence would have suggested leaving
such a cipher as Khamoor in Syria, but that seems not to have occurred
to her. It is probable, however, that the spendthrift was not she but
her husband, for when she came to be a widow she not only proved herself
an astute business woman, but accumulated wealth. On reaching London
she found Burton "in one room in a very small hotel." His pride had not
allowed him to make any defence of himself; and it was at this juncture
that Mrs. Burton showed her grit. She went to work with all her soul,
and for three months she bombarded with letters both the Foreign Office
and outside men of influence. She was not discreet, but her pertinacity
is beyond praise. Upon trying to learn the real reason of his recall,
she was told only a portion of the truth. Commenting on one of the
charges, namely that Burton "was influenced by his Catholic wife against
the J