LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 231, 6 September 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE STKANQEST JOURNEY OF MY LIFE. [From “London Society.,’] Continued ,) * I suppose we hardly shall if wo aro going to the Continent. We don’t know where, and we don’t know for how long. I shall have to stay in Lombard street a bit, to get Bank j notes and sovereigns. Nothing like English; bank-notes and sovereigns wherever you go. So we will take the Underground to Bishops -1 gate, and get on that way.’ In due time we arrived at Dover, intending to go by the Calais-Donvres next morning. But it is one thing to Intend to go by the Oalala-Douvres, and quite another actually to achieve the journey. Tho Oalals-Douvres has a knack of getting indisposed every now and then, or of finding too little water in harbor ; there is something or other that does not snit. At the Lord Warden wo saw no sign of the people we wanted. We carefully scrutinised all the different people in the spacious coffeeroom, who in their turn were eagerly scrutinising tho waves and tho skies, to judge of the chances of a fair passage. Of course it proved nothing that our friends were not there. They might be in private rooms ; they might, after all, not have left London ; they might have gone to Folkestone. No sign being visible, we thought we might wait a day. There were various people who were doing the same, because they thought they would diminish the chances of sea-sioknees by going in tho big twin-ship. We lonnged about the town, and took a trap to see Dover Castle and Walmer Castle. Grand old places they were in their way, the very air redolent of English history. But the day after, we fonnd ourselves on board the floating town of the Calais-Douvre. Hundreds of people, and among them no sign of tho people whom we wanted. I am bonnd to say that the chances of sickness were very greatly diminished, a greater degree of stability being assured than I had thought possible, and altogether the voyage was very pleasant and lively. The twin vessels seemed to typify the honoured estate of matrimony ; although it seemed as if the married vessels might easily be driven asunder by a storm, which happens often enough among the bridegrooms and brides of earth. At Calais our most obvious proceeding was to go on to Boulogne. Treasure-trove might perhaps be found in tho English quarter of the Tinteileries. We went off at once to the Etablissement. One great advantage of the Etablissement is that yon meet every one there who is staying at Boulogne. We roamed through all tho rooms and strolled out on the beach, and Lord George made a conscientious point of dropping In at various hotels to collect information and to try his favourite combination of the petit verve and the eau de seetz. These were duly entered to me as bnsiness expenses. I really believe that a good deal is to be done in Boulogne In an ordinary way ; but being disappointed in my particular object, I voted Boulogne a failure and a bore, and we took the night mail to Paris.

• And what can we do in this world of Paris, Krakine ?’ I asked, It was the doubtful dawn, and I was in a pitiable state of uncertainty and indecision, assuredly the worst state in which a poor fellow can be found.

‘ Keep your pecker up, old man, I shall, have several good cards to play, but the first and simplest is the best. We will go to Galignani’a, and look at the list of visitors.’ I had not been at Paris for years. I was strangely excited, not alone by the novelty of being there once more, but also I had a vague kind of feeling that perhaps this novel quest might be fruitful at last. I felt that something was in tho air, that something was going to happen. Shall I ever forget that morning in Paris ? I got out of the remise voiture and Insisted that I would stroll about till the shops should be open. Erskine was to get rooms for us at tho Hotel Continental or the Hotel du Louvre.

‘Well, that’s a foolish fad of yours, Fiennes,’ said my friend. ‘But keep to the Bue de Eivoli, and if you turn off to the river come back here again, that 1 may pick you up somewhere in the colonnade.’ Tho light began to break in tho east. I wandered to the Place de la Bastille, thinking of the pictured page of Carlyle. I watched the onvrier go forth to his work, the signalman of that vast proletariat class that has always dominated tho destiny of the gay metropolis. I went into a cafe, and fraternised with tho blouses drinking hot coffee dashed with cognac from the glass lumbers. I leaned over the bridges, paced beneath the towers of Notre Dame, and confronted the graceful outline of the Saiute Chapelle, the sombre frontage of the Palais de Justice. A fresh breeze from the west brightened the quivering river. The pure morning sky was un-i stained by smoke or vapour. As soon as the baths were opened I had a plunge in the stream, and then went and sat down in the little garden by tho Tour de Jacques, immortalised by the scientific experiments of Pascal, The poorer shops were all opened now; the glittering bazaar of the Palais Royal and the arcaded streets kept more fashionable hours. Turning in the opposite direction, I dropped in on the crowded picturesque scenes of the markets, where the business heart of Paris was already in full throb, I noticed many poor people with their baskets entering the Church of St. Eustaohe. The sun was now somewhat violent in its heat, and the shadow and coolness were most refreshing to me. Protestant though I was, I willingly mingled my orisons with those of the kneeling poor around me, and felt happier and more cheerful that this had been done. Then back again to the Bue de Bivoll as far as the Place de la Concorde. As I paced up and down the long historic street what mingled images strode through my excited brain ! I heard the tocsin peal forth from the little church beyond the Louvre, and the firing of the first guns on the night of St. Bartholomew. Once more a mighty multitude was gathered by the Obelisk of Luxor, to witness the doom of the most unhappy and innocent of kings and queens. Once more the front ranks of the Prussian army proceeding down the Champs Elyseea draw close to the historic ground. Now I see from the side gate of the Tuileries gardens Louis Philippe and his family quietly emerge and start on that farewell journey. And now by tho terrace where I had once seen the Prince Imperial and his mother are the awful blackened, ruins ; and surely that is a vulture or eagle, bird of desolation, which has just soared from a broken cornice of the desolated palace. Amid all these revolving memories these was an undertone of mystery and gladness that told me that Cecilia and I were breathing the air of the same famous oity, and that the changes and chances of life might bring me the vision and audience that I sought. Just at the very door of Qalignani’s I met Erskine, whose face exhibited considerable glee. * Just come in here,’ he called out; ‘ I have something to show you.’ Tho favorite old reading room is a thing of the past; the kind hearted old man Galignani, who has done so much good for the English poor in Paris, is no more ; but day by day there is the visitors’ list, which is subsequensly translated to the ‘Messenger.’ And there I read—-‘Major-General Bulstrode, Hotel Continental.

Mrs General Bnlttrode, do. Mias Manning, do.’ • I hope to goodness, Erakine, yon have taken our traps to the Continental.’ ‘ I did, old man ; but they were quite fall, and said that an English party had arrived late last night, and had taken the only rooms. And I should not wonder now if the Bulstrodes and their niece were the very people.' • And what in the world are we to do ? ’ ‘ I have done by accident the very next best thing, for I have gone next door. The very next door is an hotel. I ought to remember it, for the driver made me pay an extra fare for going an extra dozen yards, He said that I had commenced an extra course. We shall have them fairly under observation, and nothing need prevent ns going to the table d’hote.’ Yon may go to a table d’hote at a foreign hotel—there Is never any difficulty about that; but there is a difficulty, generally an impossibility, In getting near people who do not belong to your party. It may perhaps

be managed, generally through the complicity of waiters; but In the present instance It was not done. Lord Georgoon this occasion had failed either in luck or in tact.

At the further end of a long table I could only just make out the lost strangers of the West of England. I opened the precious little ease without which I never travelled, so that if Cecilia was far off from me in one way, she was close to me in another. I was well tired out by the night’s journey and the morning’s wandering in the dawn about the streets of Paris.

I waited by the door of the salle a-manger until Euoh time as the Bulstrode party should to out. Never was courtier at a levee or a ependent In a great man’s ante-chamber more anxious for a smile and a greeting than I was.

The General came first. He greeted mo very affably. ‘ Well, here we are again, ’ as tho clowns say. We seem destined to meet one another in unexpected places. ’ * The sarfaoe of human life,’ I answered sententiously, ‘is extremely small. _ The world la by no means so big as we think it is. Yon will find that the same people are always cropping up like recurring decimals.’

By this time the ladies had come up. Cecilia shook hands frankly, and Mrs Buistrode gave a pleasant smile. ‘Sorry I can’t stay to talk with yon now,’ said the General, *I am going to take my womenkind to the Grand Opera to-night, and I insist on their staying qnietly in their own rooms until we go oat Bat lam sure to meet you again, I have noticed that if you meet people once or twice on a tour, the chances are that they will come across one another again.’ 1 O yes,’ I answered, with a laugh. ‘lt is only a matter of time; we are sura to meet again. Au revoir' {To be continued.’)