Thus There Were Five Human Beings, A Host Of
Mosquitoes, And A Lamp In The Stifling Den, In Which The Mercury Stood
All Night At 88 Degrees.
Then a whole bottle of milk was spilt and
turned sour, a vial of brandy was broken and gave off its disgusting
fumes, and the infant screamed with a ferocious persistency, which
contrasted with the patient wistfulness of the sick Eblis and his
gentle murmur of "ouf!
Ouf!" Before we anchored the lady asked me to go
and wake the gentlemen and get a teaspoonful of brandy for her, at
which request, though made with all due gravity, they laughed so
tremendously that I was hardly able to go back to her with it. Major
Swinburne, who professes to be a woman and child hater, was quite
irrepressible, and whenever the infant cried outrageously, called to
his servant, "Wring that brat's neck," the servant, of course, knowing
not a word of English, and at 2 A.M., when there was chocolate on deck,
and the unfortunate baby was roaring and kicking, he called down to me,
"Will you come and drink some chocolate to King Herod's memory?" Mr.
Maxwell, who has four children, did not behave much better; and it was
a great exertion to me, by overdone courtesy and desperate attempts at
conversation, to keep the mother as far as possible from hearing what
was going on!
At 6 A.M., in the glory of the tropic sunrise, Mr. Maxwell and I landed
in Province Wellesley, under the magnificent casuarina trees which
droop in mournful grace over the sandy shore.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 420 of 437
Words from 115646 to 115913
of 120530
