Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
Ephrinell lose no time in leaving the station on business, which obliges them to find a hotel in the commercial quarter of the Chinese town. But they do not leave without receiving my compliments. Major Noltitz and I go up to this amiable couple, and the conventional politenesses are reciprocally exchanged.
The word repeated as the train stopped awoke me. It was seven o'clock in the morning. The boat did not start until three o'clock in the afternoon. Those of my companions who intended to cross the Caspian hurried off to the harbor; it being necessary to engage a cabin, or to mark one's place in the steamer's saloon. Ephrinell precipitately left me with these words: "I have not an instant to lose.
"But I wonder how the train could have got on the Nanking branch without being noticed?" "The night was very dark," said Ephrinell, "and the driver could not see the points." "That is the only explanation possible," said Popof, "for he would have tried to stop the train, and, on the contrary, we were traveling at tremendous speed."
As I am going to pass the night on deck, I return up the cabin stairs. The American is there, just finishing the repacking of his case. "Would you believe it!" he exclaims, "that that drunken moujik actually asked me for something to drink?" "I hope you have lost nothing, Monsieur Ephrinell?" I reply. "No; fortunately." "May I ask how many teeth you are importing into China in those cases?"
In any case, my French gallantry prevents me from claiming my corner, and I sit down beside this person who makes no attempt at apology. Ephrinell seems to be asleep, and that stops my knowing what it is that Strong, Bulbul & Co., of New York, manufacture by the million. The train has started. We have left Elisabethpol behind.
I was recalled to reality by the Reverend Nathaniel Morse, who said to me, "It is fixed for to-day, at nine o'clock; do not forget." That meant the marriage of Fulk Ephrinell and Horatia Bluett. Really, I was not thinking of it. It is time for me to go and dress for the occasion. All I can do will be to change my shirt.
As to Ephrinell and Miss Bluett, they went through like a posted letter. If an American commercial and an English ditto were not in order, who would be? Uncle Sam and John Bull are one as far as that goes. The other travelers, Russian and Turkoman, underwent examination without any difficulty arising.
About thirty of the passengers have left the table for the deck. I hope the fresh air will do them good. We are now only a dozen in the dining room, including the captain, with whom Major Noltitz is quietly conversing. Ephrinell and Miss Bluett seem to be thoroughly accustomed to these inevitable incidents of navigation.
There was Doctor Tio-King, his Cornaro under his arm; Fulk Ephrinell and Miss Horatia Bluett, mingling their teeth and hair, figuratively, be it understood; Sir Francis Trevellyan, motionless and silent, intractable and stiff, smoking his cigar on the threshold; Faruskiar, accompanied by Ghangir; Russian, Turkoman, Chinese travelers in all from sixty to eighty persons.
As I return I meet Ephrinell, who is coming back to his traveling companion. He shakes my hand Yankee fashion. I tell him that Miss Horatia Bluett has given me news of him. "Oh!" says he, "what a woman yonder! What a splendid saleswoman! One of those English " "Who are good enough to be Americans!" I add. "Wait a bit!" he replies, with a significant smile.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking