ts mistaken head that the land is of right the peasantry's, and
that every man who owns land has stolen it and is therefore to be shot.
But that is not the question.

The clock strikes post-time as I write, and I fear to write more, lest,
at this distance from London, I should imperil the next mail.

Cordially yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Chappell.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Monday, 3rd May, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. CHAPPELL,

I am really touched by your letter. I can most truthfully assure you
that your part in the inconvenience of this mishap has given me much
more concern than my own; and that if I did not hope to have our London
Farewells yet, I should be in a very gloomy condition on your account.

Pray do not suppose that _you_ are to blame for my having done a little
too much--a wild fancy indeed! The simple fact is, that the rapid
railway travelling was stretched a hair's breadth too far, and that _I_
ought to have foreseen it. For, on the night before the last night of
our reading in America, when Dolby was cheering me with a review of the
success, and the immediate prospect of the voyage home, I told him, to
his astonishment: "I am too far gone, and too worn out to realise
anything but my own exhaustion. Believe me, if I had to read but twice
more, instead of once, I couldn't do it." We were then just beyond our
recent number. And it was the travelling that I had felt throughout.

The sharp precautionary remedy of stopping instantly, was almost as
instantly successful the other day. I told Dr. Watson that he had never
seen me knocked out of time, and that he had no idea of the rapidity
with which I should come up again.

Just as three days' repose on the Atlantic steamer made me, in my
altered appearance, the amazement of the captain, so this last week has
set me up, thank God, in the most wonderful manner. The sense of
exhaustion seems a dream already. Of course I shall train myself
carefully, nevertheless, all through the summer and autumn.

I beg to send my kind regards to Mrs. Chappell, and I shall hope to see
her and you at Teddington in the long bright days. It would disappoint
me indeed if a lasting friendship did not come of our business
relations.

In the spring I trust I shall be able to report to you that I am ready
to take my Farewells in London. Of this