Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/199

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NORWAY AND SWEDEN.
163

of Parliament before the election of 1886, but both of whom had lost their seats at that election. One of them was connected with a great firm in the west of England, had made a fine country house for himself with grounds all round, and was now travelling in Norway with his wife. He took an enlightened interest in Indian matters, as many educated Englishmen are beginning to do, and we had long conversations on India which country he expects to visit shortly. The other ex-member of Parliament who was a monied man and a London banker had also studied some Indian questions.

In speaking of the Englishmen on board the "Capella" I must not forget to make some mention of a very clever and very witty and very sarcastic retired solicitor, whose conversation and spicy remarks on various matters gave us infinite amusement during the whole journey. He was a strong conservative, and had settled down in a sea-side town after retiring from his work. Among the other English passengers was an engineer from the Bombay Presidency.

Numerically the Americans were the strongest on board. The raw-boned, globe-trotting Americans with their somewhat free and easy manners and their brag about their free institutions are often ridiculed by English writers, but when one comes to know them, he takes and esteems them. There was Our American friends.one American gentleman among us who was travelling with his wife and two pretty daughters. He was thoroughly courteous and gentleman-like in his manners, had seen various parts