99

CHAPTER I.
OFF FOR GREENOCK.

The late--I had almost written the last--Imperial ruler of France was
wont to say--indeed, it was his favourite maxim--"Everything comes to him
who waits." It was not exactly true in his case. Just as he was to have
placed himself at the head of his followers, and make his reappearance in
France, and to have effaced the recollections of Sedan, Death, who waits
for no one, who comes at the appointed time to all, put a stop to his
career. Nevertheless, the saying is more or less true, and especially as
regards my appearance on board the _Elena_. Whether my great great
grandfather was a Viking or no, I am unable to say; all I know is, from
my youth upwards I have longed for a yacht in which I could cruise at my
own sweet will. I am no great hand at singing, but when I do sing it is
always of a

"Life on the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling deep."

And thus it happened that, when an invitation was sent to me, just as I
was on the point of giving up the ghost, in consequence of the heat of a
London summer, to leave Fleet Street, and cruise among the Western
Islands of Scotland, I accepted it, as the reader may well suppose, at
once.

It is somewhat of a journey by the Midland night express from London to
Greenock; but the journey is one well worth taking, even if, as in my
case, you do not get a Pullman car, as that had been already filled, and
was booked full, so the ticket manager said, for at any rate twelve days
in advance. It is really interesting to see that express start. "It is
an uncommon fine sight," said a man to me the other night, as he lit his
pipe at the St. Pancras Station. "I always come here when I've done
work; it is cheaper than a public-house." And so it is, and far better
in awakening the intellect or stimulating the life. It is true I did not
see the express start, as I happened to be in it; but I had another and a
greater pleasure--that of being whirled along the country, from one great
city or hive of industry to another, till I found myself early in the
morning looking down from the heights of Greenock on the busy Clyde
below. It was a grand panorama, not easily to be forgotten. All at once
it opens on you, and you enjoy the view all the more as it comes in so
unexpected a manner.

Let me pause, and say a good word for the line that bears me swiftly and
safely and pleasantly on.

The story of railway e