DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0129
120
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
the ground, with a mattress on each side for seats.
It was rather awkward sitting, particularly for me,
who was next the lady, and in that position felt
some of the trammels of conventional life; there was
no room to put my legs under the table, and, not
anticipating the precise state of things, I had not
arranged straps and suspenders, and my feet
seemed to be bigger than ever. I doubled them
under me ; they got asleep, not the quiet and tran-
quil sleep which makes you forget existence, but
the slumber of a troubled conscience, pricking and
burning, till human nature could endure it no lon-
ger, and I kicked out the offending members with
very little regard to elegance of attitude. The ice
once broken, I felt at my ease, and the evening
wore away too soon. An embargo had been laid
upon my tongue so long, that my ears fairly tingled
with pleasure at hearing myself talk. It was, in
fact, a glorious evening; a bright spot that I love
to look back upon, more than indemnifying me for
weeks of loneliness. I sat with them till a late
hour ; and when I parted, I did not feel as if it was
the first time I had seen them, or think it would be
the last, expecting to meet them a few days after-
ward at the Cataracts. But I never saw them
again; we passed each other on the river during
the night. I received several messages from them ;
and at Beyrout, after I had finished my tour in
Arabia Petreea and the Holy Land, I received a let-
ter from them, still on the Nile. I should be ex-
tremely sorry to think that we are never to meet
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
the ground, with a mattress on each side for seats.
It was rather awkward sitting, particularly for me,
who was next the lady, and in that position felt
some of the trammels of conventional life; there was
no room to put my legs under the table, and, not
anticipating the precise state of things, I had not
arranged straps and suspenders, and my feet
seemed to be bigger than ever. I doubled them
under me ; they got asleep, not the quiet and tran-
quil sleep which makes you forget existence, but
the slumber of a troubled conscience, pricking and
burning, till human nature could endure it no lon-
ger, and I kicked out the offending members with
very little regard to elegance of attitude. The ice
once broken, I felt at my ease, and the evening
wore away too soon. An embargo had been laid
upon my tongue so long, that my ears fairly tingled
with pleasure at hearing myself talk. It was, in
fact, a glorious evening; a bright spot that I love
to look back upon, more than indemnifying me for
weeks of loneliness. I sat with them till a late
hour ; and when I parted, I did not feel as if it was
the first time I had seen them, or think it would be
the last, expecting to meet them a few days after-
ward at the Cataracts. But I never saw them
again; we passed each other on the river during
the night. I received several messages from them ;
and at Beyrout, after I had finished my tour in
Arabia Petreea and the Holy Land, I received a let-
ter from them, still on the Nile. I should be ex-
tremely sorry to think that we are never to meet