The ‘Don Juan’ is
arrived, and nothing can exceed the admiration she has excited; for we must
suppose the name to have been given her during the equivocation of sex which
her godfather suffered in the harem. Williams declares her to be perfect, and I participate in his
enthusiasm, inasmuch as would be decent in a landsman. We have been out now
several days, although we have sought in vain for an opportunity of trying her
against the feluccas or other large craft in the bay; she passes the small ones
as a comet might pass the dullest planet of the heavens. When do you expect to
be here in the ‘Bolivar?’ If Roberts’s 50l.
grow into a 500l., and his ten days into months, I
suppose I may expect that I am considerably in your debt, and that you will not
be round here until the middle of the summer. I hope that I shall be mistaken
in the last of these conclusions; as to the former, whatever may be the result,
I have little reason and less inclination to complain of my bargain. I wish you
could express from me to Roberts, how excessively I am
obliged to him for the time
| LAST DAYS OF SHELLEY AND BYRON. | 99 |
I have only heard from Lord Byron once, and solely upon that subject. Tita is with me, and I suppose will go with you in the schooner to Leghorn. We are very impatient to see you, and although we cannot hope that you will stay long on your first visit, we count upon you for the latter part of the summer, as soon as the novelty of Leghorn is blunted. Mary desires her best regards to you, and unites with me in a sincere wish to renew an intimacy from which we have already experienced so much pleasure.
