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AT FONTAINEBLEAU 89
called it " salt, unplumbed, and estranging " ; but what
concerns us here is that it is often rough, and the sights
and sounds on board the steamer reveal civilization in its
collapse. My gifted cousin, Mrs. Drew, remarked some fifty
years ago that if you find yourself hard up for something
to talk about, there are two topics which never fail: one
is sea-sickness, and the other, teeth; But I will only say
this much on the former scourge : no youngster travelling
for the first time should be left uninstructed as to elemen·
tary precautions. Secondly, bad sailors have become
quite good by ceasing to eat meat. Of course your nitrogenous
Englishmen will have it that it is only the effect
of growing older; but there !lre who know better. Unquestionably
mountain-sickness is made worse by a diet
of meat and red wine ; and why should sea-sickness be
independent of the same poison ?
In 1878 I cut off a good mo!lth of first-class cricket to
wrestle with French, hoping to get some singing lessons
meantime. In both quests, without knowing it, I was
grievously in need of advice, so asked for none and
got none ; sojourned for four months or so at Fontainebleau
and St. Germains, mixing, however, far more with
English people than with French. It was and probably
is still extremely difficult for a single young man to steer
clear of his own countrymen in places whither our fashions
have penetrated ; though had I known it there '!ere scores
df nice families not very far from Paris where I might have
learnt to talk easily and have made some good friends.
At St. Germains I resided in a pension, and stayed on till
nearly all the visitors departed, and I found myself dependent
on the company of a doctor who lived in the
town and six widows indoors. These ladies talked good
. French, and there was one topic on which their comments
were sure to be voluble. The lightest allusion to politics
set them all by the ears, and it was good practice trying
to follow the heated argument. One was proficient in
recitation, and one evening offered to give me a Jesson