Читать книгу Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters - Daniel Stashower, Исмаил Шихлы - Страница 88

I hope you have had a merry Xmas and a happy new year; will it be satisfactory if I write every second letter in French, as I can give you my news better in English?* I am glad the letter pleased you, I meant it to be a little surprise. We keep Xmas very shabbily here having only Xmas and New year’s day free; I am an unlucky wretch and won nothing in the lottery, however it is a consolation that the money went to the pope.

It was extremely kind of Uncle Henry to send me the pound, and I am very grateful to him; I beg that you will keep the money, and buy something for yourself with it. Thanks for the scraps also; the fleet seems unlucky first ‘the Vanguard’ going down, and then ‘The Iron Duke’ having such an escape. What a whopping lie about the sea serpent that twisted two coils round a whale!

I am getting along very jollily, and am acquiring a whole lot of skating feats, so that when I come back I will be a respectable skater. What sort of a winter have you had? Here the cold is sometimes seventeen below zero; remember that in Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, when the soldier’s fingers dropped off it was only just above 20° below zero on an average. When we get up at five, our water for washing, though in an artificially heated dormitory, is so thick with ice, that we must pound it with a toothbrush to get at it.

I have had such nice letters from Uncle Conan and Tottie, both of whom by the way are stamp collectors. I send you a bird’s eye view of the town, the whole of that massive building on the left is the college. I am sorry you do not obtain a view of the mountains on each side.