Page:Letters from Abroad.pdf/11

 2 LETTERS FROM ABROAD

NEAR ADEN, May 19, 1920.

The crowd is thick. To place one’s chair in some tolerable position on the deck requires a degree of physical power which I lack, I have taken my shelter in a corner of the music saloon where space itself has not become impenetrable, Long before the sunrise, when it is dark, [ sit on the deck and wish that I could have the great solitude of the sea and tho sky safely packed in my trunk with a label on it, “ Required on Deck ”,

I do not know where you are, what your plans are and how you are feeling. But I can guess that you are at Dethi just at this time, not only because ‘Bara Sahib’ is there, but also because the journey there is likely to be insufferable in this heat.

My mind is constantly soaring back to my own place in Santiniketan. I fee! almost certain that my stay in Europe this time will be surprisingly short. But one’s own wish is not the sole factor in these things, and I am told that the return passage is not easily obtainable. That means our voyage back to India will be as crowded as this. This sets me dreaming of impossibilities of Alladin's lamp, of wishing carpets or boots that take you a thousand miles in a second.

The sea is perfectly calm and M—is radiantly happy. I hope my MSS. will reach me in England within a week of my landing. As those were