" She was most anxious to
return to London for this purpose; but the day after her return she
died. Mrs. Fitzgerald at once communicated with Lady Burton's dying
wishes to the person in whose charge the papers were, and requested
that they should not be published. But with a disregard alike for
the wishes of the dead and the feelings of the living, the person
rushed some of these absurd "communications" into print within a few
weeks of Lady Burton's death, and despite all remonstrance was later
proceeding to publish others, when stopped by a threat of legal
proceedings from the executors.
Early in 1895 Lady Burton was struck down with the prevailing epidemic
of influenza; and though she rallied a little after a month or two,
she never recovered. She was no longer able to walk up and down
stairs without assistance, or even across the room. Her decline
set in rapidly after this illness; for the influenza gave a fresh
impetus to her internal malady, which she knew must be fatal to her
sooner or later. She remained in Baker Street a sad invalid the
first six months of the year, and then she recovered sufficiently to
be removed to Eastbourne for a change. It was in July that I saw her
last, just before she left for Eastbourne. She asked me to come and
see her. I went one Sunday afternoon, and I was grieved to see the
change which a few months had worked in her. She was lying on a couch
in an upper room.
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