Page 306 - erewhon

trust myself to report his speech— indeed I could hardly
listen to it, for I was nearly choked with trying to suppress
my feelings. I am sure that I caught the words ‘Adelaide, the
Queen Dowager,’ and I thought that I heard ‘Mary Mag-
dalene’ shortly afterwards, but I had then to leave the hall
for fear of being turned out. While on the staircase, I heard
another burst of prolonged and rapturous applause, so I
suppose the audience were satisfied.
The feelings that came uppermost in my mind were
hardly of a very solemn character, but I thought of my first
acquaintance with Chowbok, of the scene in the woodshed,
of the innumerable lies he had told me, of his repeated at-
tempts upon the brandy, and of many an incident which I
have not thought it worth while to dwell upon; and I could
not but derive some satisfaction from the hope that my own
efforts might have contributed to the change which had
been doubtless wrought upon him, and that the rite which I
had performed, however unprofessionally, on that wild up-
land river-bed, had not been wholly without effect. I trust
that what I have written about him in the earlier part of my
book may not be libellous, and that it may do him no harm
with his employers. He was then unregenerate. I must cer-
tainly find him out and have a talk with him; but before I
shall have time to do so these pages will be in the hands of
the public.
At the last moment I see a probability of a complication
which causes me much uneasiness. Please subscribe quick-
ly. Address to the Mansion-House, care of the Lord Mayor,
whom I will instruct to receive names and subscriptions for

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