A Voyage of Consolation: (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An American girl in London')Duncan, Sara Jeannette
General
A Voyage of Consolation: (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An American girl in London')
Duncan, Sara Jeannette
Americans -- Europe -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Oh, it wasn't any use. After that I paid, and moved. Moved right up
here, this morning. But I thought about it a good deal on the way, and
concluded that, if I wasn't prepared to sample every hotel within ten
miles of this cataract for the sake of not being imposed upon, I'd have
to take up a different attitude. So I walked up to the manager the
minute we arrived, fierce as an Englishman--beg your pardon, Squire
Mafferton, but the British _have_ a ferocious way with hotel managers,
as a rule. I didn't mean anything personal--and said to him exactly as
if it was my hotel, and he was merely stopping in it, 'Sir,' I said, 'I
understand that the guests of this hotel are allowed to subscribe to an
electric illumination of the Falls of the Rhine. You may put me down for
ten francs. Now I'm prepared, for the first time, to appreciate the
evening's entertainment."
Shortly after the recital of Mr. Malt's experiences the illumination
began, and we realised what it was to drink coffee in fairyland. Poppa
advises me, however, to attempt no description of the Falls of
Schaffhausen by any light, because "there," he says, "you will come into
competition with Ruskin." The Senator is perfectly satisfied with
Ruskin's description of the Falls; he says he doesn't believe much could
be added to it. Though he himself was somewhat depressed by them, he
found that he liked them so much better than Niagara. I heard him myself
tell five different Alpine climbers, in precise figures, how much more
water went over our own cataract.
It was discovered that evening that Mr. and Mrs. Malt, and Emmeline, and
Miss Callis and the Count were going on to Heidelberg and down the Rhine
by precisely the same train and steamer that we had ourselves selected.
Mrs. Malt was looking forward to the ruins on the embattled Rhine with
all the enthusiasm we had expended upon Venice, but Mr. Malt declared
himself so full of the picturesque already that he didn't know how he
was going to hold another castle.
CHAPTER XXV.
We were on our way from Basle to Heidelberg, I remember, and
Mr. Malt was commenting sarcastically upon Swiss resources for naming
towns as exemplified in "Neuhausen." "There's a lot about this country,"
said Mr. Malt, "that reminds you of the world as it appeared about the
time you built it for yourself every day with blocks, and made it lively
with animals out of your Noah's Ark. I can't say what it is, but that's
a sample of it--'New Houses!' What a baby baa-lamb name for a town! It
would settle the municipality in our part of the world--any railway
would make a circuit of fifty miles to avoid it!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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