DEAREST MAMMA,--We got here this morning after such a night!--The
sleeping cars are too amusing. Picture to yourself the arrangement of
seats I told you about going to the Spleists, with a piece put in
between to make into a bed, and then another bed arranged on top, these
going all down each side and just divided from the aisle by green
curtains; so that if A. likes to take a top berth and B. an underneath
one, they can bend over their edges, and chat together all night, and
no one would know except for the bump in the curtains. But fancy having
to crouch up and dress on one's bed! And when Octavia and I peeped out
of our drawing-room this morning we saw heaps of unattractive looking
arms and legs protruding, while the struggle to get into clothes was
going on.
A frightful thing happened to poor Agnès. Tom's valet, who took our
tickets, did not get enough, not understanding the ways, and Tom and
the senator and the Vicomte had tossed up which two were to have the
drawing-room, and Tom lost; so when Hopkins, who is a timid creature,
found a berth did not mean a section, he of course gave up his without
saying anything to Tom, and as the conductor told him there was not
another on the train he wandered along and at last came to Agnès's. She
had a lower berth next our door, and was away undressing me. Hopkins
says he thought it was an unoccupied one the conductor had overlooked,
so he took it, and when Agnès got back and crawled in in the dark she
found him there!! There was a dreadful scene!! We heard Hopkins scream,
and I believe he ran for his life, and no one knows where he slept.
Agnès said it was too ridiculous and "_très mauvais gout_" on his part
to make such a fuss over "_un petit accident de voyage." "Je puis
assurer Madame la Marquise_," she said, "_que s'il était resté c'eut
été la même chose. Son type ne me dit rien_!" At the same time she does
not think these trains "_comme il faut_!"
We were just in time for an early breakfast when we arrived at this
hotel, and the quaintest coloured gentlemen waited on us; they were
rather aged, and had a shambling way of dragging their feet, but the
most sympathetic manners, just suited to the four honeymoon pairs who
were seated at little tables round. That was a curious coincidence,
wasn't it, Mamma, to find four pairs in one hotel in that state. None
of the bridegrooms were over twenty-five, and the brides varied from
about eighteen to twenty-eight; we got the senator to ask about them,
and one lot had been married a week, and they each read a paper propped
up against their cups, and did not speak much, and you would have
thought they were quite indifferent; but from where I sat I could see
their right and left hands clasped under the table! Another pair with a
dour Scotch look ate an enormous meal in solemn silence, and then they
went off and played tennis! Their wedding took place three days ago!!
The third had been there a fortnight, and seemed very jaded and bored,
while the last were mere children, and only married yesterday! She was
too sweet, and got crimson when she poured out his tea, and asked him if
he took sugar? I suppose up till now they had only been allowed nursery
bread and milk.
I don't believe I should like to have had my honeymoon breakfasts in
public, would you, Mamma? Because I remember Harry always wanted--but I
really must not let myself think of him or all my pride will vanish,
and I shall not be able to resist cabling.
I find the senator too attractive. He does not speak much generally,
and never boasts of anything he has done. We have to drag stories out
of him, but he must have had such a life, and I am sure there is some
tragedy in his past connected with his wife. He has such a whimsical
sense of humour, and yet underneath there is a ring of melancholy
sometimes. I know he and I are going to be the greatest friends. Gaston
is getting seriously in love, which is perfectly ridiculous; he almost
threatened to throw himself into the falls when we went to look at
them; but fortunately I said only the very curly-haired could look well
when picked up drowned, so that put him off.
I was not half so impressed with the falls as I ought to have been.
They don't seem so high as in the pictures, and the terrible buildings
on one side distract one so it seems as if even the water can't be
natural, and must be just arranged by machinery. But it was fun going
under them, and those oilskin coats and caps are most becoming. You go
down in a lift and then walk along passages scooped out of the rock
until you are underneath the volume of water, which pours over in front
of you like a curtain. It was here Gaston suggested his suicide, and
all because I had told the senator that he was to arrange for us to
have a drive alone in the afternoon, and he overheard in the echo the
place makes. I had never asked him to drive alone he said, and I said,
certainly not, the senator and I would talk philosophy, whereas he
would make love to me, I knew, and it would not be safe. That pacified
him a good deal, and as I had been rather unsympathetic and horrid all
the morning, I was lovely to him for the rest of the day; and he is
really quite a dear, Mamma, as I have always told you.
Octavia says she thinks it rather hard my grabbing everybody like this,
and she had wanted the senator for herself on our trip, so we have
agreed to share him, and Tom says it is mean no one has been asked for
him. So the senator has wired to "Lola" to bring two cousins to meet us
at Los Angeles. He says they are the sweetest girls in the world, and
would keep anyone alive. I am rather longing to get there and begin our
fun. After the falls we did the rapids, and they impressed me far more
deeply; they are rushing, wicked-looking things if you like, Mamma, and
how anyone ever swam them I can't imagine. The spring is all too
beautiful, only just beginning, and some of the bends of the river and
views are exquisite. I felt quite romantic on the way back, and allowed
Gaston to repeat poetry to me. We are just starting to get on to
Chicago, so good-bye, dear Mamma.
Love from your affectionate daughter,