Volume Ii Part 48 (1/2)
[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.]
OFFICE OF ”ALL THE YEAR ROUND,”
_Tuesday, Nov. 5th, 1867._
MY DEAR MRS. WATSON,
A thousand thanks for your kind letter, and many congratulations on your having successfully attained a dignity which I never allow to be mentioned in my presence. Charley's children are instructed from their tenderest months only to know me as ”Wenerables,” which they sincerely believe to be my name, and a kind of t.i.tle that I have received from a grateful country.
Alas! I cannot have the pleasure of seeing you before I presently go to Liverpool. Every moment of my time is preoccupied. But I send you my sincere love, and am always truthful to the dear old days, and the memory of one of the dearest friends I ever loved.
Affectionately yours.
[Sidenote: Miss d.i.c.kens.]
ABOARD THE ”CUBA,” QUEENSTOWN HARBOUR, _Sunday, Nov. 10th, 1867._
MY DEAREST MAMIE,
We arrived here at seven this morning, and shall probably remain awaiting our mail, until four or five this afternoon. The weather in the pa.s.sage here was delightful, and we had scarcely any motion beyond that of the screw.
We are nearly but not quite full of pa.s.sengers. At table I sit next the captain, on his right, on the outside of the table and close to the door. My little cabin is big enough for everything but getting up in and going to bed in. As it has a good window which I can leave open all night, and a door which I can set open too, it suits my chief requirements of it--plenty of air--admirably. On a writing-slab in it, which pulls out when wanted, I now write in a majestic manner.
Many of the pa.s.sengers are American, and I am already on the best terms with nearly all the s.h.i.+p.
We began our voyage yesterday a very little while after you left us, which was a great relief. The wind is S.E. this morning, and if it would keep so we should go along n.o.bly. My dearest love to your aunt, and also to Katie and all the rest. I am in very good health, thank G.o.d, and as well as possible.
[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.]
ABOARD THE ”CUBA,” FIVE DAYS OUT, _Wednesday, Nov. 13th, 1867._
MY DEAREST GEORGY,
As I wrote to Mamie last, I now write to you, or mean to do it, if the motion of the s.h.i.+p will let me.
We are very nearly halfway to-day. The weather was favourable for us until yesterday morning, when we got a head-wind which still stands by us. We have rolled and pitched, of course; but on the whole have been wonderfully well off. I have had headache and have felt faint once or twice, _but have not been sick at all_. My s.p.a.cious cabin is very noisy at night, as the most important working of the s.h.i.+p goes on outside my window and over my head; but it is very airy, and if the weather be bad and I can't open the window, I can open the door all night. If the weather be fine (as it is now), I can open both door and window, and write between them. Last night, I got a foot-bath under the dignified circ.u.mstances of sitting on a camp-stool in my cabin, and having the bath (and my feet) in the pa.s.sage outside. The officers' quarters are close to me, and, as I know them all, I get reports of the weather and the way we are making when the watch is changed, and I am (as I usually am) lying awake. The motion of the screw is at its slightest vibration in my particular part of the s.h.i.+p. The silent captain, reported gruff, is a very good fellow and an honest fellow. Kelly has been ill all the time, and not of the slightest use, and is ill now. Scott always cheerful, and useful, and ready; a better servant for the kind of work there never can have been. Young Lowndes has been fearfully sick until mid-day yesterday. His cabin is pitch dark, and full of blackbeetles. He shares mine until nine o'clock at night, when Scott carries him off to bed. He also dines with me in my magnificent chamber. This pa.s.sage in winter time cannot be said to be an enjoyable excursion, but I certainly am making it under the best circ.u.mstances. (I find Dolby to have been enormously popular on board, and to have known everybody and gone everywhere.)
So much for my news, except that I have been constantly reading, and find that ”Pierra” that Mrs. Hogge sent me by Katie to be a very remarkable book, not only for its grim and horrible story, but for its suggestion of wheels within wheels, and sad human mysteries. Baker's second book not nearly so good as his first, but his first antic.i.p.ated it.
We hope to get to Halifax either on Sunday or Monday, and to Boston either on Tuesday or Wednesday. The gla.s.s is rising high to-day, and everybody on board is hopeful of an easterly wind.
[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.]
_Sat.u.r.day, 16th._
Last Thursday afternoon a heavy gale of wind sprang up and blew hard until dark, when it seemed to lull. But it then came on again with great violence, and blew tremendously all night. The noise, and the rolling and plunging of the s.h.i.+p, were awful. n.o.body on board could get any sleep, and numbers of pa.s.sengers were rolled out of their berths. Having a side-board to mine to keep me in, like a baby, I lay still. But it was a dismal night indeed, and it was curious to see the change it had made in the faces of all the pa.s.sengers yesterday. It cannot be denied that these winter crossings are very trying and startling; while the personal discomfort of not being able to wash, and the miseries of getting up and going to bed, with what small means there are all sliding, and sloping, and slopping about, are really in their way distressing.
This forenoon we made Cape Race, and are now running along at full speed with the land beside us. Kelly still useless, and positively declining to show on deck. Scott, with an eight-day-old moustache, more super like than ever. My foot (I hope from walking on the boarded deck) in a very shy condition to-day, and rather painful. I shaved this morning for the first time since Liverpool; dodging at the gla.s.s, very much like Fechter's imitation of ----. The white cat that came off with us in the tender a general favourite. She belongs to the daughter of a Southerner, returning with his wife and family from a two-years' tour in Europe.