ues had had the patience to read with
the very shadows of Eternity gathering already in the hollows of his
kind, steadfast eyes.

The purpose instilled into me by his simple and final "Distinctly"
remained dormant, yet alive to await its opportunity. I dare say I am
compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as
in past years I was compelled to go to sea voyage after voyage. Leaves
must follow upon each other as leagues used to follow in the days
gone by, on and on to the appointed end, which, being Truth itself, is
One--one for all men and for all occupations.

I do not know which of the two impulses has appeared more mysterious and
more wonderful to me. Still, in writing, as in going to sea, I had to
wait my opportunity. Let me confess here that I was never one of those
wonderful fellows that would go afloat in a wash-tub for the sake of the
fun, and if I may pride myself upon my consistency, it was ever just
the same with my writing. Some men, I have heard, write in railway
carriages, and could do it, perhaps, sitting cross-legged on a
clothes-line; but I must confess that my sybaritic disposition will not
consent to write without something at least resembling a chair. Line by
line, rather than page by page, was the growth of "Almayer's Folly."

And so it happened that I very nearly lost the MS., advanced now to
the first words of the ninth chapter, in the Friedrichstrasse railway
station (that's in Berlin, you know), on my way to Poland, or more
precisely to Ukraine. On an early, sleepy morning changing trains in
a hurry I left my Gladstone bag in a refreshment-room. A worthy and
intelligent Koffertrager rescued it. Yet in my anxiety I was not
thinking of the MS. but of all the other things that were packed in the
bag.

In Warsaw, where I spent two days, those wandering pages were never
exposed to the light, except once, to candle-light, while the bag lay
open on a chair. I was dressing hurriedly to dine at a sporting club. A
friend of my childhood (he had been in the Diplomatic Service, but had
turned to growing wheat on paternal acres, and we had not seen each
other for over twenty years) was sitting on the hotel sofa waiting to
carry me off there.

"You might tell me something of your life while you are dressing," he
suggested kindly.

I do not think I told him much of my life-story either then or later.
The talk of the select little party with which he made me dine was
extremely