“My proposition to Orr was this: and I would be very glad if you would communicate it to M’G., because if _he_ felt disposed to become a party in the compact I should be better pleased. Perhaps you would then read for him the following:--
“To enter into an arrangement with me to repurchase from Curry all the copyrights, as well those he owns entire as those in part, and then to commence from the stereotype plates a cheap weekly issue, with Notes and Prefaces by the Author. I would myself contribute ‘O’Leary’--which is entirely mine--to the new edition, and do my utmost to give the whole a new feature of interest.
“If M’G. would enter into the speculation, he, more than any other, could contribute to its success, and I would myself pledge that whatever I wrote in the way of story hereafter should be reserved for similar publication.
“I believe I have now gone through the whole matter save the expression of my never-ceasing gratitude to the friend who can devote of his few and scanty leisure hours nearly all in the cause of affectionate interest.
“The weather is again becoming wintry. Avalanches have fallen on every side of us--fifty feet of snow is lying in the Innspruck road; the mail for Italy is four days due, and even Switzerland--usually regular--is two days behind time. I do not venture to anticipate when we may be able to cross the Alps,--certainly not under six or eight weeks if present appearances last.
“If M’G. has not replied to my last when you see him, urge him to do so, as it regards the contributing of some papers which I should like to despatch before I left this.”
“We are already busied with the stir and bustle of departure, though the time is still distant; but poor dear Germany is not a land of despatch, and to obtain a packing-box you must wait for a tree to be felled, barked, sawed, and planed, with all the vicissitudes attendant on these several processes, and the inevitable interruptions of saints’ days and festivals in honour of every grand duke and grand duchess that ever were chronicled in the ‘Almanac de Gotha.’
“Speed, therefore, is out of the question, and my impatience has already more than once jeopardised my character for prudence and good sense among this, the easiest-going nation that ever smoked away existence. Still, I am sorry to leave them, and feel that the exchange to Italy is, in every respect save climate, for the worse. The Germans are peaceful, good-natured, homely, honest souls, docile as dogs, and never treacherous. The Italians are falsehood incarnated,--their whole lives a long practical lie. Still, not to see the land would be a sad disgrace, the more as we have stood so long on the threshold--or rather at the bottom of the stairs--i.e., at the foot of the Alps.