Thou art the curse of all classes of officialdom in England--"civil" and
"military" alike!
By-and-by, however, when my patience had become exhausted, and I was
seriously thinking of starting home with the few hundred dollars I had
made on the American press, the vicar wrote for me to come.
The old gentleman--might his "shadow never be less," I devoutly wished--
had betaken himself to his plough after an arduous official service of
forty years. He only retired, however, because he received a pension
amounting to his full salary, for which he had striven and kept me out
of his shoes so long. Putting the thought of this on one side, the
secretaryship was now mine, as soon as I arrived to claim it--the sooner
that was, the better, the vicar added, as if I needed any stimulus to
return to home and my darling!
What a delightful, darling letter Min sent to me, too!
She told me that I was to start off immediately--"at once, sir,"--on
receipt of her tender little missive. She was expecting me, looking for
me, awaiting me!
She had learnt all the songs I liked; had prepared the dresses in which
I had said she looked best; would greet me, oh, so gladly!
I was to keep my promise and arrive on Christmas-eve, when her mother
would be happy to see me; and she--well, she didn't know yet whether
_she_ would speak to me or not:--it, really, depended whether I was
"good!"
I took my passage in a steamer leaving the next day; but, instead of
getting home on Christmas-eve, I only arrived at Liverpool a day before
the close of the year--six days late! However, I was in England at
last, in the same dear land that held my darling; and she would forgive
me, I knew, when she saw how glad I was to get back to her dear little
self. "Naughty Frank!" she would say--"I won't speak to you at all,
sir!"
And, wouldn't she?
Oh, dear no!
All the way up to town from the fair city on the Mersey, the railway
nymphs, whom I had previously noticed on my journey to Southampton, were
as busy as then, with their musical strains.