II
I sent you a short letter from Liverpool, saying that by the
unprecedented delays of the _Urania_, which I had taken because it was
the swiftest boat of the Neptune line, we had failed to pass the old,
ten-day, single-screw Galaxy liner which Aristides had sailed in. I had
only time for a word to you; but a million words could not have told the
agonies I suffered, and when I overtook him on board the Orient Pacific
steamer at Plymouth, where she touched, I could just scribble off the
cable sent Mr. Makely before our steamer put off again. I am afraid you
did not find my cable very expressive, but I was glad that I did not try
to say more, for if I had tried I should simply have gibbered, at a
shilling a gibber. I expected to make amends by a whole volume of
letters, and I did post a dozen under one cover from Colombo. If they
never reached you I am very sorry, for now it is impossible to take up
the threads of that time and weave them into any sort of connected
pattern.
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