260 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



have got the Secretary of the Company coming down 

 with me. We meet with kindness on all sides. Your 

 last letter was 2nd July. Oh ! how glad I shall be to 

 get back. I will wire from Queenstown and London. 

 I am very fit, thank God. Kiss all the nest for their 

 old pater." 



"H.M.S. 'BRITANNIC,' 



Wednesday, 6th August. 



It is too wonderful to think that, D. V., if all is well, 

 I shall post this to-morrow at Queenstown, and that in 

 a day or two I shall be with you. We ought to get to 

 Liverpool on Friday in time to catch either the 

 eleven or two train, in which case, if there is a boat to 

 Dieppe, I shall be with you on Sunday. Oh ! what joy 

 it will be ; 16,000 miles is a long journey, and I shall be 

 glad to get to my nest again. It has been a most glorious 

 trip, and I shall never be able to tell you all I have 

 seen. I have one side of my Gladstone bag full of 

 photos ! so you will have lots to illustrate my Journal, 

 which is short, but to the point. We have had a 

 marvellous passage. I don't think even you could have 

 been ill. It has been literally calm all the way. I 

 shall finish this to-morrow, and post it at Queenstown, 

 if I find it will get quicker to London, and I shall send 

 a wire of course. I am very fit, and will take great 

 care of our genial climate, you may be sure. It was 

 very hot starting, for the first day or two 8 2 degrees in 

 cabin. Now it is about 63 degrees. I got all your 

 letters at New York, and Mildred's. Thank the darling 

 child for it from her ' little father,' as she called me. 

 No words can describe Niagara ; it is the noblest thing 

 I ever saw, and nothing short of a bullock could look 

 at it without awe and wonder ; 200,000,000 of tons of 

 water are computed to fall over the falls per hour, so 



