“He had interested me so greatly,” writes Lady Bancroft to me,[FN#624] “that I felt myself in his debt, and so tried by that means to make it up to him.  He laughed heartily at them.  Indeed, I never knew anyone who more enjoyed my stories.  One morning early I played a practical joke upon him.  He politely raised his hat and said:  ’I will forgive you, dear friend, on one condition.  Play the same trick on Stanley when he comes down and I will watch.’  I agreed, and fortunately brought down my second bird.  Both victims forgave me.  One day I posed the Burtons, the Stanleys, Captain Mounteney Jephson (Stanley’s friend and companion), with Salah (Stanley’s black servant) for a photograph, which was taken by a young clergyman.  I have the delightful result in my possession.  I remember on a splendid morning, when the weather had mended and the sun was dancing over a neighbouring glacier, my husband saying to the black boy, ’Salah, isn’t this a lovely day—­don’t you like to see the beautiful sun again?’ ‘No, sir,’ was the answer, ’ice makes him cold.’  Both Stanley and Sir Richard interested me more than I can say; they were wonderful personalities, and those were, indeed, happy days.”

Almost every day during the trip Sir Richard brought the Catullus to the table d’hote, and on 21st July he had finished his second copy.  He then wrote in the margin, “Work incomplete, but as soon as I receive Mr. Smithers’ prose, I will fill in the words I now leave in stars, in order that we may not use the same expressions, and I will then make a third, fair and complete copy."[FN#625] During this trip, too, Burton very kindly revised the first half of Dr. Baker’s work The Model Republic.  The second half was revised by John Addington Symonds after Burton’s death.

Burton was back again at Trieste on 7th September.  He and the magpie trunk were never again to make a journey together.  The melancholy fate of the Catullus, which Burton had put aside in order that he might finish The Scented Garden, will be recorded in a later chapter.

171.  The Golden Ass.

Another work that Burton left unfinished was a translation of The Golden Ass of Apuleius—­a work known to Englishmen chiefly by Bohn’s edition,[FN#626] and the renderings of the episode of Cupid and Psyche by Adlington and Walter Pater (in Marius the Epicurean).  The manuscript of Burton’s translation is now in the possession of M. Charles Carrington, the Paris publisher, who is arranging for its completion by a competent hand.  The portions due to Burton will, of course, be indicated.  These consist of “The Author’s Intent,” about two pages small 4to; nearly all the story of Cupid and Psyche; and fragments of Books 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11.[FN#627]

On 30th September Burton wrote again to Mr. W. F. Kirby.  “Your collaboration,” he says, “has been most valuable to me.  Your knowledge of Folk Lore is not only ample, it is collected and controlled by the habit of accuracy which Science gives and which I find in all your writings upon imaginative subjects. ...  Let me hope that new scenes will not cause you to forget old subjects, and remind you of the infinite important fact that I am a subscriber to the Kalevala.”