My Mother — Page 40
40 correspondence, though intimate and affectionate, did not dwell much on sentiment or emotion. One incident that related to me might be mentioned as illustration of her inner tur- moil. Three days after my departure for Bombay with my father, my grandmother said to , ‘What a comfort would it be to welcome my son on his return from Bombay tomorrow. ’ This observation jarred on and she could not restrain herself from retorting, ‘Madam, your son has not gone beyond the seas. It matters little whether he returns tomorrow or the day after!’ She confessed that the moment the words had left her lips, she regretted her outburst. We had sailed from Bombay on September 1. The monsoon was blowing full blast, and the vessel, S. S. Koerber of the Austrian Lloyd Co. , 4000 tons displacement, bound for Trieste, pitched and rolled violently. Within an hour of setting sail I was seasick and there followed four days of incessant unrelieved misery. Once out of the monsoon zone the voyage became a delight and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. The train journey from Trieste, via Munich, Frankfurt, and Brussels to Ostend was most interesting. We crossed to Dover and arrived in London on the early morning of September 17, 1911. My eye trouble, though healed, had left my right eye very weak, and I was advised that even if I were selected for appoint- ment to the Indian Civil Service, I would not pass the medical test. That part of my father’s plan had, therefore, to be abandoned. I joined King’s College, London, for the LL. B. and Lincoln’s Inn for the Bar. I was called to the Bar in June 1914, and passed the LL. B. examination of the University of London in October of that year, standing first in First Class Honours.