My
courage did not give out, but I am very sure that I was greatly
supported and emboldened by the knowledge that if, at the last moment,
my embarrassment should not allow me to begin my address, or if in the
course of its delivery I should feel unable, for any reason, to go on
with it, there was some one present who would read it for me.
It had long been my habit to attend with my grandmother, bi-monthly, an
early evening whist party at the house of an elderly neighbor. I had a
bad headache on one of these appointed evenings, and Walkirk, who was a
perfectly respectable and presentable man, went with my grandmother in
my stead. I afterward heard that he played an excellent hand at whist, a
remark which had never been made of me.
But I will not refer at present to any further instances of the
usefulness of my under-study, except to say that, as I found his feet
were of the same size and shape as my own, I sent him to be measured for
a pair of heavy walking-shoes which I needed; and I once arranged for
him to serve in my place on a coroner's jury, in the case of a drowned
infant.
The evening listenings still went on, and as the scope of my remarks
grew wider, and their purpose became better defined, it began to dawn
upon me that it was selfish to devote these accounts of remarkable
traveling experiences to the pleasure of only two men, myself and my
listener; the public would be interested in these things.
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