AT BRIDLINGTON QUAY 

[London], 18 August 1881 
Dear F Rep, 

No doubt you will by now have had the brief note I wrote you day 
before yesterday from Argenteuil and have gathered from it that Iam 
here without my wife (not with her as you necessarily supposed in your 
letter). 

On hearing the news of Tussy’s condition I resolved to leave that 
very same day if possible; my wife, on the other hand, was to set off to- 
day with Helen? and travel rirst crass, first to Amiens and spend the 
night there; then, the next day, to Boulogne and rest there for at least 
a day, but 2 or 3 days if she wished; thence to Folkestone and, de- 
pending on circumstances, from there straight on to London or else 
(and this seemed to me best), by a later train of her own choosing. It 
was, of course, distressing to part from her, but the REAL SUPPORT FOR HER 
is Helen; my own presence wasn’t absolutely necessary. Moreover, my 
departure compelled her finally to make up her mind to tear herself 
away from Argenteuil, which after all had got to happen in view of 
her growing weakness. 

So I left Paris on Tuesday’ evening at 7.45 by Express TRAIN Via 
Calais, and arrived in London at asout 6 o'clock (MORNING). 

I at once telegraphed Dr Donkin who was here by 11 o’clock and 

* Demuth -? 16 August 

had a long consultation with Tussy. Her stare 1s ONE OF UTTER NERVOUS 
prjEcTION. She has been eating next to nothing for weeks, less than 
Dr Tanner during his experiment.'° Donkin says there’s no organic 
trouble, HEART SOUND, LUNGS sound, etc.; fundamentally the whole condi- 
tion is attributable to a PERFECT DERANGEMENT OF ACTION OF STOMACH Which 
has become unaccustomed to food (and she has made matters worse 
by drinking a great deal of tea: he at once forbade her all tea) and 
a@ DANGEROUSLY OVERWROUGHT NERVOUS SYSTEM. Hence SLEEPLESSNESS, NEURAL- 
GIc convu.sions, etc. It was a miracle, he said, that a coxtapse of this 
kind hadn’t happened before. He intervened at once and, what is 
most important of all in this little person’s case, brought it home to 
her that, if she was an obedient patient, there would be no danger, but that 
Uf she insisted on having her own way, all would be perdu.* (Indeed he is 
convinced that this is so.) Fortunately she promised to do as he said, 
and when she makes a promise she keeps it. Later on, he says, 
she will have to go away in order to distract herself. 

Another reason for hastening my departure was the knowledge 
that Donkin intended to take his Hotmays in the Hebrides from 17 Au- 
gust. He is staying here until Saturday on Tussy’s account and will 
then leave a remplagant for her and my wife. 

At the latest meeting of électeurs Mr Gambetta learnt something in- 
side the Meetinc-HALL!?° that he had learnt only at the hands of the 
crowd outside the meeting-hall at the first Belleville mezrinc. '°* This 
second meeting also consisted solely of people who had been invited 
by his own committee, and none of them was admitted except after 
a twofold triage‘ by the stewards appointed by the comité. Hence the 
uproar was all the more significant. On both occasions Galliffet! 
was the cri that predominated. Thus Gambetta learnt the lesson that 
effrontery of the /talian variety is out of place in Paris. Had Rochefort 
been able to speak in public and had he thus been enabled to offer 
himself then and there as a competing candidate, Gambetta would 
certainly have been defeated. As a result of what happened at 
the time of the Commune, the Belleville working-class population lost 
about 20,000 men, most of whom have been replaced by lower mid- 
dle-class philistines. And even the remaining or newly arrived work- 
ing-class population of Belleville (both arrondissements) is one of arrié- 
rés; stick-in-the-muds, whose ideal, if it goes beyond Gambetta, stops 
at Rochefort; both were returned as deputies there in 1869. 

c 

@ lost-> locum -* screening process 

As to the state of the parti ouvrier? in Paris, someone who is wholly 
impartial in this respect, namely Lissagaray, admitted to me that, al- 
though only existing en germe,” it alone counts for anything vis-a-vis the 
bourgeois parties or aut nuances. Its organisation, though still tenuous 
and plus ou moins fictive, is nevertheless sufficiently disciplined for it to 
be able to put up candidates in every arrondissement—to make its 
presence felt at Meetincs and annoy the orrictat society Peopte. I myself 
have been following this aspect in Paris papers of every complexion 
and there’s not one that doesn’t grind its teeth at that GENERAL NUI- 
SANCE—le parti ouvrier collectiviste.* | 9° 

As regards the latest splits among the leaders of the parti ouvrier, it 
would be best if I told you about this in person later on. 

With best wishes to Pumps and Mrs Rendstone. 

Your 
Moor