that mamma shut me up for an hour every day in the state-room, and
made me learn by heart some religious poem. I was only five years
old, and I believe that as a child I was extremely timid; on the
other hand, mamma, as you know, was dreadfully severe. She is
severe to this day; only I have become indifferent; I have been so
pinched and pushed--morally speaking, bien entendu. It is true,
however, that there are children of five on the vessel today who
have been extremely conspicuous--ranging all over the ship, and
always under one's feet. Of course they are little compatriots,
which means that they are little barbarians. I don't mean that all
our compatriots are barbarous; they seem to improve, somehow, after
their first communion. I don't know whether it's that ceremony that
improves them, especially as so few of them go in for it; but the
women are certainly nicer than the little girls; I mean, of course,
in proportion, you know. You warned me not to generalise, and you
see I have already begun, before we have arrived. But I suppose
there is no harm in it so long as it is favourable. Isn't it
favourable when I say that I have had the most lovely time? I have
never had so much liberty in my life, and I have been out alone, as
you may say, every day of the voyage. If it is a foretaste of what
is to come, I shall take to that very kindly. When I say that I
have been out alone, I mean that we have always been two. But we
two were alone, so to speak, and it was not like always having
mamma, or Madame Galopin, or some lady in the pension, or the
temporary cook. Mamma has been very poorly; she is so very well on
land, it's a wonder to see her at all taken down. She says,
however, that it isn't the being at sea; it's, on the contrary,
approaching the land. She is not in a hurry to arrive; she says
that great disillusions await us. I didn't know that she had any
illusions--she's so stern, so philosophic. She is very serious; she