Hanbury-Green, with whom she kept up a brisk correspondence. Very
well, then! she would go to Brudenstein; she would not martyrize herself
by being with a man on crutches! So half of her August passed in a most
agreeable manner, and towards the end of the month she summoned her
_fiance_ to Florence. He could walk with a stick now--and to meet her
there and go on to Venice and out to the Lido would be quite delightful,
and could not hurt him. She deserved some attention after this long
time!
The end of the session had come, and still the Government hung on, but
it was obvious that they had been so much discredited that the end could
not be long postponed, and that, as soon as Parliament met again, a
hostile vote would be carried against them. But for the time there was
nothing to keep John Derringham in England, and with intense reluctance
he started for Italy, the ever-nearing date for his wedding looming in
front of him like some heavy cloud. He had plunged headlong into work
when he had returned from Wendover, for which he was still quite unfit.
His whole system had received a terrible shock, and it would be months
before he could hope to be his old robust self again; and an unutterable
depression was upon him.
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