Not even
another gallon!"
"But you both sit there with both your mugs open," replies the girl
in an injured tone.
"What do you mean, 'we sit with our mugs open'?" asks B. "Can't we
have our mugs open if we like?"
"Ah, yes," she explains pathetically; "but then I think you want
more beer. Gentlemen always open their mugs when they want them
filled with beer."
We kept our mugs shut after that.
MONDAY, JUNE 9TH
A Long Chapter, but happily the Last. - The Pilgrims' Return. - A
Deserted Town. - Heidelberg. - The Common, or Bed, Sheet, Considered
as a Towel. - B. Grapples with a Continental Time Table. - An
Untractable Train. - A Quick Run. - Trains that Start from Nowhere. -
Trains that Arrive at Nowhere. - Trains that Don't Do Anything. - B.
Goes Mad. - Railway Travelling in Germany. - B. is Taken Prisoner. -
His Fortitude. - Advantages of Ignorance. - First Impressions of
Germany and of the Germans.
We are at Ostend. Our pilgrimage has ended. We sail for Dover in
three hours' time. The wind seems rather fresh, but they say that
it will drop towards the evening. I hope they are not deceiving us.
We are disappointed with Ostend. We thought that Ostend would be
gay and crowded. We thought that there would be bands and theatres
and concerts, and busy table-d'hotes, and lively sands, and thronged
parades, and pretty girls at Ostend.
I bought a stick and a new pair of boots at Brussels on purpose for
Ostend.
There does not seem to be a living visitor in the place besides
ourselves - nor a dead one either, that we can find. The shops are
shut up, the houses are deserted, the casino is closed. Notice-
boards are exhibited outside the hotels to the effect that the
police have strict orders to take into custody anybody found
trespassing upon or damaging the premises.
We found one restaurant which looked a little less like a morgue
than did the other restaurants in the town, and rang the bell.
After we had waited for about a quarter of an hour, an old woman
answered the door, and asked us what we wanted. We said a steak and
chipped potatoes for two, and a couple of lagers. She said would we
call again in about a fortnight's time, when the family would be at
home? She did not herself know where the things were kept.
We went down on to the sands this morning. We had not been walking
up and down for more than half an hour before we came across the
distinct imprint of a human foot. Someone must have been there this
very day! We were a good deal alarmed. We could not imagine how he
came there. The weather is too fine for shipwrecks, and it was not
a part of the coast where any passing trader would be likely to
land.
