Being now entitled to two years’ leave I made up my mind to return home, and posted up to Teheran and Resht; thence by Russian steamer over the Caspian.
On the Caspian I met the Rev. R. B⸺, of the Church Missionary Society, who had been stationed at the Armenian village of Julfa, near Ispahan. He was returning with his wife, after a stay in Persia of some years. This companionship made a tedious journey more agreeable. We had fine weather on the Caspian, and reached Zaritzin without incident.
When passing through Russia a French lady, Madame O⸺, authoress of ‘Impressions of Life in Russia,’ came into our train. She was accompanied by a crowd of friends, who had provided her with supplies of food and drink, fruits and sweetmeats, on a most extensive scale.
These she most kindly insisted on our partaking of. She proved an amusing companion, but differed on religious matters with the clergyman, who at length expressed himself as shocked with her very liberal opinions. The lady then ceased to argue, and asked for a cigarette. My friend gave her one, but it was of Teheran manufacture, and not at all to her taste.
“Tiens,” she said, handing a silver case to him, filled with Russian Laferme cigarettes, “my opinions are like your cigarettes, execrable, but my cigarettes are undeniable;” and they were.
I took my two years’ leave, married, and made up my mind, very reluctantly, not to return to Persia; but the English climate did not agree with me, and at length my wife and I determined to go out, and, at all events, see if it were preferable to England or no.
I fancy it was rather against my own previous ideas, as we were shown a letter of mine by a married French friend, who had, when personally unknown to me, written to ask what was the needful outfit for Persia. I had replied, so many shirts, boots, etc., such saddlery, and, above all, no wife.
After five years’ experience we both think my advice to my friend was correct.
In September 1876 we got on board the British India Steamship Company’s ship Arcot. Our friends and relatives went with us as far as Gravesend, and we went through all the usual weepings and farewells. My wife was very ill till in the Bay of Biscay; I insisted then on her coming on deck, and after that, though she couldn’t stand the saloon, which was stuffy, for the first week, she enjoyed the voyage, which, as she had never left Europe before, had all the charm of novelty.