Meredith twenty
pounds, and that unless she wished a subscription paper to be started
for them in the hotel, among the English, many of whom were her
acquaintances, she must send money to relieve their necessities, and pay
their bills. Neil felt almost sure that this last would touch his
mother, when nothing else could reach her, and he was right. Neither she
nor her husband cared to have their friends contribute to the needs of
any one who bore their name, and the letter which Lady Jane sent to her
son contained sixty pounds, which she bade him use to the best possible
advantage, adding that he was to leave Rome as soon as he could, with
any show of decency. This, Neil would gladly have done if he could, but
when his mother's letter arrived it found him plunged into a
complication of difficulties from which he could not extricate himself.
Daisy had suddenly been stricken down with the fever, which developed so
rapidly and assumed so violent a form that Neil's strength, and courage,
and patience were taxed to the utmost, and he might have succumbed
entirely, if it had not been for Flossie, who was equal to any
emergency, and who resisted all her grandmother's efforts to get her out
of the fever-hole, as she designated the hotel.
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