This he would not assent to, saying that he was quite content with the care of an Italian doctor who visited him almost daily, and that he hoped to be able, under my escort, to return within a very short time to England.
"I shall never be much better, dear Sophy," he said one day.

"The doctor tells me that I am suffering from some sort of consumption, and that I must not expect to live long.

Yet I yearn to see Worth once more, and to feel again the west winds blowing in the evening across from Portland, and smell the thyme on the Dorset downs.

In a few days I hope perhaps to be a little stronger, and I then wish to show you a discovery which I have made in Naples.

After that you may order them to harness the horses, and carry me back to Worth Maltravers." I endeavoured to ascertain from Signor Baravelli, the doctor, something as to the actual state of his patient; but my knowledge of Italian was so slight that I could neither make him understand what I would be at, nor comprehend in turn what he replied, so that this attempt was relinquished.