Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
reedy greens. They were brightest just after sunset, when the glare of the sun had disappeared at
ground level but its light still illuminated high clouds. The nacreous ones were small and oval, and
they floated along in a line like fat iridescent pearls on an invisible thread. As Gertrude Stein said,
'Paradise - if you can stand it.'
The dignity of the landscape infused our minds like a symphony; I heard another music in those
days.
We got to know one another pretty well. Lucia was a perfect companion. In the early days she
often looked worried, especially if she was concentrating on the exigencies of sea ice travel or
the problem of how to prevent her paints and fingers from freezing. But if something really funny
happened she would throw back her head and laugh loudly. Her whole face was transformed when
she did this. It was like watching the sun break through the clouds after a storm. I liked her all
the time, but I liked her most then, and sometimes I contrived a reason to tell her a funny story,
to make her throw back her head and laugh. She was good-natured, good-humoured and equable,
and when she was absorbed in a task she twittered quietly to herself like a small bird. I wasn't as
good at living alongside another human being as she was. Cherry wrote that in Scott's hut you had
to choose whom you sat by at dinner according to whether you wanted to talk, listen, or just sit
quietly. We had no such choice. Lucia gave a lot, unwittingly, during those weeks. I always felt
that I couldn't give as much as she did.
