Ingenious pain, Andrew Miller [little red riding hood ebook .txt] 📗

with laughter, and where a smirk might offend, such open amusement is taken in good part. Mrs F is cuter than her husband. I catch her sometimes with a very shrewd expression on her face. Before this honeymoon is over she shall have Mr F well tamed.

As for our Captain, Monsieur About, you already know something of his character and abilities. Did you not find something — how shall I say? — something mysterious about him? I have not fathomed him at all and yet I have a pefect confidence in him. If any man may bring all safely and expeditiously to the Imperial court it is he.

At Brussels we had a look at Dr Dimsdale and another of the competitors, a Mr Selkirk, and in Hanover we saw Ozias Hampshire. We could not tell which of them was leading but upon our arrival in Berlin we discovered that Dyer was still the front-runner and that the accusations against him, and against his man, grow ever more furious. There is even some talk of his having hired brigands to waylay Dr Lettsom's chaise and certainly Dr Lettsom would seem to be out of the race.

I have passed the day in sightseeing — the Opera House, the old Royal Palace, the new Protestant cathedral in the Lustgarten which they call 'old Fritz's tea-cup' on account of its dome. 'Old Fritz himself is in the city and About has gone to the Palace in hopes of an audience. He did not wish to be accompanied, claiming that the matter was one of business and would be too dull. He took with him, carried by a servant from the hotel, one of the stout boxes he loaded in Paris. I do not know what is inside of them, and when this morning I gave it a hard look. About winked at me in a very curious manner. I cannot believe it is anything improper. Does Frederick have any foibles your Ladyship knows of? Great men sometimes do. I believe that Monsieur About delights in teasing us.

Mr and Mrs Featherstone have been with me doing the sights. They are rather pleased with Berlin and as the Prussians were our allies in the late wars they have a greater claim on Mr F's affections than the French can ever hope for. Tonight we dine at the Bristol and retire early to make the most of our good Prussian beds, for About advises us that the further east we travel the less salubrious will be our quarters. So be it.

I trust this shall find your Ladyship both healthy and happy. Shall you be going up to Town this winter? Now Monsieur About is at the door. I am your humble and obedient servant,

Julius Lestrade

Jls Lestrade to Miss Dido Lestrade

Berlin, 1 November Dear Dido,

Your brother is in Berlin! Yes, I know, he has no business being there but. . . there he is and there's an end on it. Are you well? I have sometimes wondered whether Thome knows what he is doing. Most doctors are incompetent. Quite a number of them are mad. All are greedy. The trip from Paris might have been worse though my back is sore from the confounded coach and I have been seized with the worst attack of piles I can remember having suffered. I often wish I was back in Cow, but as I am still unfit to serve as the people's spiritual guardian I should only have to go away again and cause more distress to those I hold dear. Perhaps God is in the East. Perhaps I shall become a Mohammedan. Would you let me back in the house, Dido, if I became a Mohammedan?

Besides Monsieur About I am travelling with some people called Featherstone. Mr Featherstone, who has shares in a couple of Bristol slave boats, is a great red-faced child. Mrs F is a fiirt and has married him for his slave gold.

Incredible as it may seem, she has been making eyes at me! They say travelling induces a slackening in a mans moral character; what effect might it have upon a woman? We shall see.

Tomorrow morning we are on the road again. Things I fancy will be considerably less convenient from here on. Of course, there is nothing to stop me returning to Paris, or for that matter returning to England, but I intend to see the journey through. I shall then at least have some stories to tell, even if I have no grandchildren to tell them to.

I had a dream last night and you were in it, wearing one of Mama's old dresses, the grey one. Do you recall it? When I woke I had for a time a strong emotion. I wonder if Father was happy at my age. Are you happy, dear sister?

My next from the chilly land of the Poles. Give my best to old Askew. Remember me in your prayers.

Julius

Rev Jls Lestrade to Mr Askew, Esq

Bydgoszcz, 8 November

My dear Askew,

I doubt not but Dido has kept you informed of my peregrinations. She was not at all pleased with me when I left, swore she could not understand my mind at all. Accused me of pleasing myself at the expense of others. I am afraid there is some justice in this, though I hope that you, old friend, are not so hard on me. How could I discharge my office as a conscious hypocrite? A lawyer may perhaps practise his profession without much faith in the law or a soldier attend to his duties without believing his war to be a just one, but a man of the cloth cannot decently continue without his faith. I know, my friend, you are wagging your head and saying if such were the case half of the divines in England would have to relinquish their positions. I sometimes think that what I fear

most is that I could live quite contentedly WITHOUT religion. Is this the spirit of our times? An