CHAP. VIII - LOSS

Summary

While the weather kept up, Dr. Bishop continued to improve. Two young doctors, Mrs. Macdonald's sons, were at home and took him out boating almost daily. His brother came to the new hotel for a month, and was his companion, boating or driving. He ate better, began to sketch, sat out a great deal, made visits and enjoyed those of friends and neighbours. By the end of August, 1884, he had gained half a stone. Mrs. Bishop was at liberty to read and write a little and to visit the poor people whose care she regarded as Henrietta's legacy.

On the 23rd she wrote to Lady Middleton:

I wished I had been with you when you entertained Lowell, whom I remember as a young widower living in a small clematis-embowered wooden house in Cambridge, Mass., wearing masses of brown auburn hair rather long, and being regarded as resembling Shakespeare. He was then known only as the author of The Biglow Papers. I think much more of him as a most accomplished critic than as a man of great literary talent. I wonder what he is like now. His public appearances are tactful and charming.

Unfortunately about that time torrents of rain and thunderous heat replaced the fresh summer air and sunshine, and Dr. Bishop ceased to benefit and even began to lose ground.

I do not now think [she wrote] that John will recover, but unless he has an illness he may live for a long time as an invalid. […]