The Argosy — page 245: what you’re looking at

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

22 Letters from Majorca. Yet one’s daily life of course has to go on, as if there were no such thing as trouble and illness and anxiety to weight the passing hours. Those who are in health must endeavour to remain so. ‘Thus, at about ten o’clock every morning, Nurse Long, who has kept vigil all night, has to go out for an hour’s walk, by strict orders, before lying down. The doctor and I generally accompany her. Nothing would per- suade her to sally forth alone. She did so the second morning after her arrival, and lost herself in the perplexing streets of Palma. Imagine her position—unable to speak a word of the language, and so not daring to enter a shop or address anyone who passed her by. She arrived back again at the end of three hours in a most hysterical condition, and fainted dead away from fatigue and fright. Therefore we now accompany her. ‘This daily exercise is abso- lutely necessary under the circumstances, and in this enervating climate. ‘The heat is intense, and is much against the patient. Day after day the sky is cloudless, growing white and heated as a furnace towards noon. ‘The glare of the sun is so great that it is difficult to go out without the protection of large blue glasses ; double glasses or pince-nez, that you perch upon the nose. ‘The first morning that we all three wore them, Mr. Bateman met us, and graphically de- clared that we looked like three owls in a row, charging the world. They certainly do not add to one’s beauty, but it is astonishing how quickly human nature yields to the inevitable. This power of adapt- ing oneself to circumstances, this acceptance of what must be, is one of man’s best gifts. It is interesting also to pilot Nurse Long about the streets of Palma. Everything is new and strange to her, who has never been abroad before. It is a sudden change to another world; and her remarks upon all she sees, her wonder and surprise, are very refreshing. She much admires the effect of the mantillas, and I fancy is meditating this change of costume, under pretence that a bonnet is too hot for the climate. Of course vanity is really at the bottom of the idea; but we can fancy ourselves into anything, and personal deception is the commonest of human weaknesses. Her favourite shop is the pastrycook’s, to which we pay regular and devoted visits: her fa- vourite sweetmeat, burnt almonds of the most refined description. She tells me they help to keep her awake at night. Nurse Long’s costume attracts great attention in our walks. Nothing like it has ever been seen. If she paraded up and down the Rambla at the fashionable hour, she would make a sort of Royal Progress. The crowd would divide to let her pass. They cannot quite make it out. Her dress is not that of a nun; as certainly it is not that of a person living the ordinary life of the world. She must be some- thing apart. The doctor is equally the hero of the hour; in the ladies’ eyes much more so. He is much admired. They have declared that he CONMICLIOO KS. COR