I saw him off at Tilbury when he left England on his last Expedition.
Already he was his own man once more. After the blinding, stunning
effect of the great event there had been a quick recuperation. His
spirit had risen to a wonderful strength and even a certain
cheerfulness.
I did not find it hard to read the secret of this change. It was not
merely that Time, the great assuager, had begun to do its work with him,
but that he had brought himself to accept without qualm or question Mary
O'Neill's beautiful belief (the old, old belief) in the immortality of
personal love, and was firmly convinced that, freed from the
imprisonment of the flesh, she was with him every day and hour, and that
as long as he lived she always would be.
There was nothing vague, nothing fantastic, nothing mawkish, nothing
unmanly about this belief, but only the simple faith of a steady soul
and a perfectly clear brain. It was good to see how it braced a strong
man for life to face Death in that way.
As for his work I found him quite hopeful. His mission apart, I thought
he was looking forward to his third trip to the Antarctic, in
expectation of the silence and solitude of that strengthening region.
As I watched the big liner that was taking him away disappear down the
Thames I had no more doubt that he would get down to the South Pole, and
finish his task there, than that the sun would rise the following
morning.