Had not a _Howadji_ of this Western hemisphere made the Desert and the
Nile so peculiarly his own, that it is presumption for a common pen to
follow in his track, we might be tempted still further to ransack our
memory for pleasant recollections of Don Pablo. Let it suffice to say,
that with these pleasant companions we roughed it across the
camel-track, in a style of discomfort and good humour rarely surpassed;
explored the wonders of Thebes and the Tombs of the Kings; floated down
to Cairo; clambered the Great Pyramid; smoked pipes with Pashas; and
finally embarked at Alexandria, on the blue waters of the
Mediterranean. The farewell was said at Syra, one of the islands of the
Ægean. The "five we supped with yesternight" were bound to Malta and
Marseilles--we to Athens and Constantinople. As we shook hands at
parting with Don Pablo, he quietly remarked, with that cheerful gravity
that so well became him, and in allusion to a young lady who had been
our three days' acquaintance on board the steamer--"_Adieu, mon cher;
vous épouserez Mademoiselle._"
We never saw Don Pablo, but once afterwards. Several months had elapsed.
His prophecy had been fulfilled. The lady in question was on our arm, as
in sauntering under the arcades of the Palais Royale in Paris, we met
our old associate. There was a hearty greeting; but when we reminded him
of his prediction and formally introduced him, we remember that he cut
the colloquy abruptly short (as it then seemed to us), and turned away
with an expression of face for which we were at a loss to account, being
ignorant of all the details of his history. Did the memory of the
Peninsula of Iala-Iala, and of the loving wife whom he had buried there,
fall too suddenly and too sadly upon his sensitive and affectionate
spirit?--We cannot say; but this was the beginning and the ending of our
knowledge of Doctor Pablo, until we unexpectedly met him in print.
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE ALPS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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