The Argosy — page 388: what you’re looking at

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

Letters from Majorca. 365 it. The treasure was ours: not for ever, fortunately, but for the occasion. We had some trouble in securing it, by reason of the confusion of tongues which here is our normal state of being. Perseverance surmounts —— but I have quoted this wisdom to you before, and will not weaken it by repetition. Yet as History repeats itself, why not Proverbs ? Francisco—our conversational Refuge for the Destitute—=inter- preted at our carriage conference. Lord Beaconsfield, you know, had an interpreter at the Berlin Conference, so that we were not establishing a precedent. I talked; H. C. was silent witness in case of legal difficulty; Francisco translated; our host understood, promised, acquiesced, bowed, was altogether charming. The confer- ence broke up in perfect union and accord. Everything went merry as a marriage bell. There would have been a great many marriage bells, by the way, before now, had I not over and over again restrained H. C.’s fine phrenzied poetical admiration of—I am bound to confess it—most charming and picturesque penitents. Their devotions give a softness to the eye and an appealing expression to the face of these Mallor- quinas, that only a stoic, such as you know me to be, could resist. But to our carriage. It was a barouche. Its fashion was not of this century; and as we made progress, I kept slipping down, and having to draw myself up again before finally landing in humility at the bottom. H. C. was as cool as a cucumber throughout, and as rigid as Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames Embankment, with the sphinxes facing the wrong way. I afterwards found that he had made a footstool of my beau- tiful tripod—fancy the degradation !—which kept him comfortably perpendicular. He always takes excellent care of himself, and rushes in triumphantly where I should fear to tread. You know the quota- tion, and if you apply it to us verbatim I will not let him know. But be careful to discriminate. Do not for a moment think of Azme as the angel. We had a great many packages. Some were bags, some were portmanteaux, some were simply done up in brown paper. ‘These were lowering to one’s dignity ; but I am not of those who have a genius for packing; I can only put things together; and we could leave nothing of all this behind. H.C. was simply useless, and if I could have put him also into a bag, it would have been a great help, and a relief. We had our photographic appurtenances—a host in themselves. And we had to take with us a three days’ supply of provisions. ‘This commissariat detail requires explanation. Miramar is not a town or a village, but simply an estate belonging to the Archduke. It is a part of the island, and if not its very grandest portion, I doubt very much if we shall see anything more beautiful. comnmicooolks (SO