The Argosy — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

Letters from Majorca. 47 struck her forehead vacantly. Of course everything had to be returned to its place, and order once more brought out of chaos. But a dozen strange things did Rosa perform that day before the midnight hour had struck upon the midnightair. Atlast Mr. Bateman exclaimed with resignation : “Rosa is very trying, but at the new and full of the moon she becomes completely irresponsible. If we expected fair weather she would be capable of bringing about the deluge.” Nevertheless I discerned that Rosa had excellent qualities. That she was fidelity itself I was informed, and that she is a very good cook I have experienced. The French say, “ I] faut souffrir pour étre beau ;” and the proverb is only another rendering of ‘‘ There is no Rosa without a thorn.” The next morning we started for the Albufera, an estate of some Six or seven thousand acres, belonging to Mr. Bateman. It has been reclaimed from the marshes ; has been thoroughly drained and culti- vated ; is now abundantly fertile and fair to look upon. We had to pass through Alcudia, and after a long drive, approached the old town, and those ancient walls which had so impressed me on a first acquaintance with them. JBut it was no longer three o’clock in the morning. I was in far better condition for appreciating and enjoying these beauties of nature and of antiquity. Again, I was charmed with Alcudia; with that rare amber shade which rests upon it and gives it so Eastern, so individual an appear- ance. We took photographs, and as I had stupidly forgotten the screw, Mr. Bateman performed its office for me by holding the machine upon the tripod with a firm hand. His great height enabled him to do this to perfection. If we are not like ‘‘ Beauty and the Beast” going about together, at least we resemble the ‘“‘ Giant and the Dwarf.” I always hold it a supreme test of friendship for a man who has the slightest vanity in him, to place himself habitually in a position which draws public comparison so much in his disfavour. Can anything, for instance, look more ridiculous than for a short man to take the arm of a very tall one? But there I draw the line. Of course in leaving the screw behind me I might have done worse. I might have forgotten the lens; and no one could turn himself into a lens ‘‘ at discretion.” But I fear I am forgetting myself at the present moment. Camera, lens, tripod, these probably to you are words of Greek and Hebrew. You enjoy the results—as far as I am able to enclose them to you: but of the means you know nothing. We walked round the outer walls, and were not trespassing. They belong to Mr. Bateman; are his own private and personal property, to build up or pull down, restore or demolish, as he pleases. It were a sin to touch them in any way. ‘They are beautiful in themselves, with a beauty I have scarcely seen equalled in any walls elsewhere. Even the wonderful walls of Wisby, in Gotland, with all COMICMHOOKS.C© An