Of course, you want to know how I got along on the long voyage over. I
wrote you a few lines from Gibraltar telling you a little about that. I
wasn't seasick a single bit. I think it must be in our blood, this being
able to keep well and happy on salt water. Our family has always been to
sea, as far back as my great-great-grandfather, at least, and I suppose
that explains why, as soon as I stepped aboard the steamer, I felt as
if I was where I belonged. And Galusha, of course, has traveled so much
that he is a good sailor, too. So, no matter whether it was calm or
blowy, he and I walked decks or sat in the lee somewhere and talked of
all that had happened and of what was going to happen. And, Lulie, I
realized over and over, as I have been realizing ever since I agreed
to marry him, what a wonderful man he is and what a happy and grateful
woman I ought to be--and am, you may be sure of that. Every day I make
a little vow to myself that I will do my best not to make him ashamed of
me. Of course, no matter what I did he would think it all right, but I
mean to prevent other people from being ashamed for him. That is, if I
can, but I have so much to learn.
You should see how he is treated over here, by the very finest people,
I mean. It seems to me that every scientist or explorer or professor of
this or that from China to London has been running after him, all those
that happen to be in this part of the world, I mean. And always he is
just the same quiet, soft-spoken, gentle person he was at the Cape, but
it is plain to see that when it comes to matters about his particular
profession, my husband is known and respected everywhere. Perhaps you
will think, Lulie, that I am showing off a little when I write “my
husband” like that. Well, I shouldn't wonder if I was. Nobody could help
being proud of him.
I had a trial the other evening. That is, it seemed as if it would be
the greatest trial that ever I had to face and my, how I dreaded it. Sir
Ernest Brindlecombe, an English scientist, and, so Galusha says, a very
great man, indeed, is here with his wife, and they have known Galusha
for years. So nothing would do but we must come to their house to
dinner. He is in the English government service and they have a
wonderful home, more like a palace than a house--that is, what I have
always supposed a palace must be like. I felt as if I COULDN'T go, but
Galusha had accepted already, so what was there to do?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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