26th (1890) a week after his return to Trieste, Burton wrote to
Mr. A. G. Ellis: "It is very kind and friendly of you to write about The
Scented Garden MSS. I really rejoice to hear that you and Mr. Bendall
have escaped alive from those ground floor abominations stinking of half
rotten leather. I know the two Paris MSS. [of The Scented Garden]
(one with its blundering name): they are the merest abridgments, both
compressing Chapter 21 of 500 pages (Arabic) into a few lines. I must
now write to Gotha and Copenhagen in order to find out if the copies
there be in full. Can you tell me what number of pages they contain?
Salam to Mr. Bendall, and best wishes to you both. You will see me in
England some time after March 19th 1891."

At no work that he had ever written did Sir Richard labour so sedulously
as at The Scented Garden. Although in feeble health and sadly emaciated,
he rose daily at half-past five, and slaved at it almost incessantly
till dusk, begrudging himself the hour or two required for meals and
exercise. The only luxury he allowed himself while upon his laborious
task was "a sip of whiskey," but so engrossed was he with his work that
he forgot even that. It was no uncommon remark for Dr. Baker to make:
"Sir Richard, you haven't drunk your whiskey." One day, as he and Dr.
Baker were walking in the garden he stopped suddenly and said: "I have
put my whole life and all my life blood into that Scented Garden, and it
is my great hope that I shall live by it. It is the crown of my life."

"Has it ever occurred to you, Sir Richard," enquired Dr. Baker, "that in
the event of your death the manuscript might be burnt? Indeed, I think
it not improbable."

The old man turned to the speaker his worn face and sunken eyes and
said with excitement, "Do you think so? Then I will at once write to
Arbuthnot and tell him that in the event of my death the manuscript is
to be his."

He wrote the letter the same day. Arbuthnot duly received it, and
several letters seem to have passed between them on the subject; but we
do not know whether Lady Burton was aware of the arrangement. All we can
say is that Arbuthnot believed she knew all about it.

It seems to have been at this time that Lady Burton prevailed upon her
husband to range himself nominally among the Catholics. "About a year
before her death," Mr. T. Douglas Murray writes to me, "Lady Burton
showed me a paper of considerable length, all of it in Sir R. Burton's
writin