Egypt -- Description and travel -- Humor; London (England) -- Description and travel -- Humor; Voyages and travels -- Humor
No fireman going to a fire ever dressed himself with such rapidity as
we dressed the hysterical Henry. Everything fitted him perfectly.
Shirt, collar, trousers, waistcoat, swallowtail, opera hat, tie,
gloves, studs, buttons--everything just his size. Nothing in the
outfit had ever fitted me, but when we got through with Henry he was
beyond criticism. He actually wept with joy as we ran him out to the
carriage and boosted him in and started him southward, with eleven
minutes to spare. He arrived on the dot. For weeks afterward he would
sit down every day and write me a letter of thanks and declare that he
would never forget me and the service I had done him. Of course, it
would have been impossible for me to forget anyone who had looked well
in my evening clothes, and it was a positive pleasure to meet Henry's
sister. She said she had long desired to have a look at me. She had
not believed it possible that there was another living mortal whose
clothes would fit Henry, but now she saw that she had been mistaken.
It is flattering to learn that people we have never met have been
interested in us for a long time. Continuing the same line of thought,
it is often disappointing to learn that the people most deeply
interested in us are those who have never met us. For fear of getting
mixed up, let us return to the boat.
Our principal cargo was honeymoon. We had six newly married couples,
who were advertising to all the world the fact of their sudden
happiness, and three other couples were under suspicion. The men
lounged in the smoking-room, as if to give the impression that they
were hardened in matrimony, but they peeked out through the portholes
too often and made many trips to the deck.
[Illustration: _Three other couples under suspicion_]
One German couple was the most newly married team that any of us had
ever seen. I don't think they knew they were in a boat. They may have
suspected, but it really didn't make any difference. They were in a
trance, riding on a cloud of incense, saturated with bliss. He was
middle aged, with red flaring whiskers, and a nose showing an angular
break in the middle. She was short and plump, with a shiny, oil-finish
countenance. Neither had been constructed according to the plans and
specifications of Love's Young Dream, and yet the devouring adoration
which played back and forth between Romeo and Juliet was almost icy
compared with this special brand of Teutonic love. They were seldom
more than three inches apart, he gazing into her eyes with a yearning
that was unutterable (even in German) and she gazing right back at him
in blushing rapture and seeming to say to herself:--"Just think! He
belongs to me, whiskers and all!" It was almost enough to induce one
to get married.
[Illustration: "_--Whiskers and all_"]
They were drifting so far above the earth that they forgot to be
seasick. The other honeymooners took to their cabins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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