There Is Properly, No Autumn Or Spring Here;
Only Hot, Dry, Brown Summer, With Its Cold Wind At Times, And Fresh
Green Winter, All Fragrance And Flowers, And Much Less Wind.
Mr.
M-, of whom I told you, has been in every corner of the far East -
Java, Sumatra, everywhere - and is extremely amusing.
He has
brought his wife here for her health, and is as glad to talk as I
am. The conversation of an educated, clever person, is quite a new
and delightful sensation to me now. He appears to have held high
posts under the East India Company, is learned in Oriental
languages, and was last resident at Singapore. He says that no
doubt Java is Paradise, it is so lovely, and such a climate; but he
does not look as if it had agreed with him. I feel quite heart-
sick at seeing these letters go off before me, instead of leaving
them behind, as I had hoped.
Well, I must say good-bye - or rather, 'auf Wiedersehn' - and God
knows how glad I shall be when that day comes!
LETTER XIII
Capetown, April 19th.
Dearest mother,
Here I am, waiting for a ship; the steamer was too horrid: and I
look so much to the good to be gained by the voyage that I did not
like to throw away the chance of two months at sea at this
favourable time of year, and under favourable circumstances; so I
made up my mind to see you all a month later.
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