n Egyptian
millionaire of Alexandria called Mahmoud Baroudi, whom we met
coming out, and who happened to want a tenant for his boat just in
the nick of time. It isn't my money he needs, though I'm paying him
what I should pay Cook for a first-rate boat, but he doesn't like
leaving his crew and servants with nothing to do. He says they get
into mischief. He was looking out for a rich American--like nearly
every one out here--when he happened to hear from one of our
fellows, a first-rate chap called Ibrahim, that we wanted a good
boat, and so the bargain was made. Our plans are pretty vague. We
want to get right away from trippers, and just be together in all
the delicious out-of-the-way places on the river; see the temples
and tombs quietly, enter into the life of the natives--in fact,
steep ourselves to the lips in Nile water. I can't tell you how we
are both looking forward to it. Isaacson, we're happy! Out here in
this climate, this air, this clearness--like radiant sincerity it
is, I often think--it's difficult not to be happy; but I think
we're happier even than most people out here--at any rate I'm sure
I am--I'll dare to say than any one else out here. And I'll say it
with audacity and without superstitious fears of the future. The
sun's streaming in over me as I write; I hear the voices of the
watermen singing; I see my wife in the garden walking to the river
bank, and I've got this trip before me. And--just remembered
it!--I'm superbly well. Never in my life have I been in such
splendid health. They say a perfectly healthy man should be
unconscious of his body. Well, when I get up in the morning, all I
know is that I say to myself, 'You're in grand condition, old
chap!' And I think that consciousness means more than any
unconsciousness. Don't you? I've no use for all your knowledge,
your skill, out here--no use at all. Are there really people being
ill in London? Are your consulting-rooms crowded? I can't believe
it, any more than I can believe in the darkness of London days.
What a selfish brute I am! You're hating me, aren't you? But it's
so good to be happy. When I'm happy, I always feel that I'm
fulfilling the law. If you want to fulfil the law better, come to
Egypt. But you ought to bring _the_ woman with you into the
sunshine. I c