smouldering and flashing of passions, the thrill and sting of which he
had never known. Saved as he was by his temperament alike from deep
suffering and tense emotion, and from any vital mingling either with the
scum and foam or with the stagnancy and mire of life, the books remain
as a brilliant illusion, with much of the shifting hues and changing
glimmer of his own ardent and restless mind rippling over the surface of
a depth which is always a little mysterious as to the secrets it
actually holds.




XV

FAILING HEALTH


Hugh's health on the whole was good up to the year 1912, though he had a
troublesome ailment, long ignored, which gave him a good deal of
malaise. He very much disliked being spoken to about his health, and
accepted no suggestions on the subject. But he determined at the end of
1912, after enduring great pain, to have an operation, which was quite
successful, but the shock of which was considerable. He came down to
Tremans just before, and it was clear that he suffered greatly; but so
far from dreading the operation, he anticipated it with a sense of
immense relief, and after it was over, though he was long unwell, he was
in the highest spirits. But he said after he came back from Rome that he
felt ten years older; and I can recall his coming down to Cambridge not
long after and indulging one evening in an immense series of yawns, for
which he apologised, saying, "I'm tired, I'm tired--not at the top, but