Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/119

Rh indefatigable Doctor, I went over the city, East River, and Brooklyn. In the evening I bade farewell to the good Dean Pitferge, and I felt, in leaving him, that I left a friend.

Tuesday, the 16th of April, was the day fixed for the departure of the Great Eastern. At eleven o'clock I went to Thirty-seventh pier, where the tender was to await the passengers. It was already filled with people and luggage when I embarked. Just as the tender was leaving the quay someone caught hold of my arm, and turning round I saw Dr. Pitferge.

"You!" I cried; "and are you going back to Europe?"

"Yes, my dear sir."

"By the Great Eastern?"

"Undoubtedly," replied the amiable original, smiling; "I have considered the matter, and have come to the conclusion that I must go. Only think, this may be the Great Eastern's last voyage; the one which she will never complete."

The bell for departure had rung, when one of the waiters from the Fifth Avenue Hotel came running up to me, and put a telegram into my hands, dated from Niagara: "Ellen has awakened; her reason has entirely returned to her, and the doctor has every hope of her recovery."

I communicated this good news to Dean Pitferge.

"Every hope for her indeed! every hope!" said my fellow-traveler, in a sarcastic tone. "I also have every hope for her, but what good does that do? Anyone may have great hopes for you, for me, for all of us, but at the same time he may be just as much wrong as right."

Twelve days later we reached Brest, and the day following Paris. The return passage was made without any misfortune, to the great displeasure of Dean Pitferge, who always expected to see the great ship wrecked.

And now, when I am sitting at my own table, if I had not my daily notes before me, I should think that the Great Eastern, that floating city in which I lived for a month, the meeting of Ellen and Fabian, the peerless Niagara, all these were the visions of a dream. Ah! how delightful is traveling, "even when one does return," in spite of what the Doctor may say to the contrary.

For eight months I heard nothing of my original, but