The Argosy — page 399: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Letters from Majorca. 381 A. drew me towards Palma with an unseen mesmeric force. I had taken a great liking to him, from our previous intercourse ; still more so from our subsequent correspondence. It seemed mutual. Let me quote once more that we can only understand Shakespeare by the Shakespeare within us: and so I, the hero worshipped, am in tum, the most enthusiastic, determined, and devoted of hero wor- shippers. Again, you thought that danger lurked round and about Mallorca, in the air, on the earth, and in its hidden recesses. Do you remem- ber, how, not many weeks ago, when we were in Boulogne, in our old, pleasant rooms at the Hotel des Bains, you took up our English Bay OF ALCUDIA, newspaper which Henri had just laid upon the breakfast table, opened it and gave a scream: a refined and lady-like scream, I admit, but still a scream ? “ EARTHQUAKE IN Majorca!” you exclaimed. “That settles the question. You cannot go now; and you should not go for all the A.’s in the world! I feel quite indebted to the earthquake.” But in the course of time there came a telegram from A. “Earthquake nothing. Rather an agreeable sensation than otherwise. Expecting you by every boat. Waiting on the quay. Don’t keep me waiting too long.” And so, in spite of earthquakes, past or future, I still declared for Palma. In due time we said good-bye to Boulogne: so pleasant in early spring when we have the piers and the sea, and the sands and the fine air all to ourselves : and we returned to England. comicbooks.com