It will also interest your nephew and
his lady (whose hands I kiss) if they succeeded in effecting
their escape to England--where, failing news of them, I do
myself a frequent pleasure to picture them at rest upon the
quiet waters of domestic felicity. But I address myself rather
to you, whom (albeit on the briefest acquaintance) I shall ever
regard as the personification of stability and mild repose.
Heracleitus and his followers may prate of a world of flux; but
there are men to whom the recollections of their fellows ever
turn confidently, secure of finding them in the same place; and
of such, sir, you are the palmary example among my
acquaintance.
"On the circumstances of our retreat from Genoa I need not
dilate. We decamped--I and my brother _artistes_--to Pisa,
where, after an unsatisfactory season, we broke up our company
by mutual consent and went our various ways in search of
fortune. Mr. Badcock--by this time a pantaloon of considerable
promise and not to be sneezed at in senile parts where
affection or natural decay required, or at least excused, a
broken accent--threw in his lot with me: and we bent our steps
together upon this unique city, where for close upon twelve
months I have drawn a respectable salary as Director of Public
Festivities to the Sisterhood of the Conventual Body of Santa
Chiara.
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