Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/489

 7:30, but the guests were always a quarter of an hour late Our guide in Naples was a rather sullen American, and we learned today that he was formerly a very rich man. His father died seven years ago, and left him a fortune, but he ran through with it, and is now a guide, at $2 a day. He spent most of his money in Monte Carlo, at the gambling-tables. This information I get from the newspaper scholar, quoted above, who is an old traveler. He says he knows the guide well, but refused to give me his name. I have the guide's card, but the newspaper scholar says it is not his real name.

—The bad weather continues, and we cannot take our usual walks. We sit in a protected place on the upper deck, wrapped in rugs, and talk about getting home. Adelaide has decided that she does not care to remain in New York long; that she wants to get home as soon as possible; so if we reach that city Thursday night, as expected, Friday afternoon will see us on a railroad train headed westward..,. While on the Pacific ocean, I met a life insurance man named Adams, who told me that he traveled constantly, and that his expenses, afloat and ashore, averaged $11 a day. He kept no expense account, he said; at the end of the year he charged the company $11 a day for expenses, and that was almost exactly what he spent. Today I made a calculation, and found that the present trip has cost us $11 a day each, almost to a penny. So if you want to know what traveling costs, here is an estimate you may depend