It seems he was trying to
combine two substances by adding a third, and, as I understood him,
the mixing took place with unexpected suddenness. He has endeavored to
explain to me the reaction, as he calls it, which occurred, but I seem
to have no head for chemistry, and besides, if I am to be blown
through the roof some of these days it will be no consolation to me
when I come down upon the pavement outside to know accurately the
different elements which contributed to my elevation. Jack is very
patient in trying to instruct me, but he could not resist the
temptation of making me ashamed by saying that your friend, Miss
Katherine Kempt, would have known at once the full particulars of the
reaction. Indeed, he says, she warned him of the disaster, by marking
a passage in a book she gave him which foreshadowed this very thing.
She must be a most remarkable young woman, and it shows how stupid I
am that I did not in the least appreciate this fact when in her
company."
The next letter was received a week later. He was getting on
swimmingly, both at the Foreign Office and at the Russian Admiralty.
All the officials he had met were most courteous and anxious to
advance his interests. He wrote about the misapprehensions held in
England regarding Russia, and expressed his resolve to do what he
could when he returned to remove these false impressions.
"Of course," he went on, "no American or Englishman can support or
justify the repressive measures so often carried out ruthlessly by the
Russian police.
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