Empress of Canada June 23rd,1928 Darling:This is the 8th day on board and I haven't told you much about what it feels to be on board such a big ship as the Empress of Canada.The fact is we very much regret having taken to this boat insteal of one of the Dollar-line boats.This is a Canada ship, a Britisher, not American.Consequently the atmosphere on board is pervaded with that British chill which is made doubly worse by the sea chill of the Northern peacific.You mean to tell me this is summer time? Yes, except in the sight of here and there barely surviving white flannels and white canvas shoes one finds it extremely difficult to make out any trace of summer.Enter the drawing rooms and you feel(not surprisedly)the good of the radiators heartily at work again;go to the decks and you feel the good of caps and overcoats and heavy shawls and thick steamship rugs tightly tugged round your sides;look at the sea and you are confronted with indifferent masses of steely water hemmed in by hazy horizons and overcast with a misty firmament that promises neither sunlight nor glad-hued clouds.And you mean to tell me that this is summer, the month of June?
Wemps just proposed a star plan to us which, if successfully carried out will combine art and money.‘Go to join the Hollywood Crowd and make a million gold dollars of fortune out of say three years’ work’—— he says he can think of no better plan than that.
亲爱的:这是在船上度过的第八天,可我还没有和你多谈些在这条大船——加拿大皇后号上的感受。
事实上我们很后悔乘坐这条船,而没有搭乘美国道拉航线的船。加拿大是英国式的而不是美国式的。因此,船上的气氛弥漫着不列颠的冷漠,比起北太平洋上的寒流更加糟糕,你会说这不是夏天吗?是的,但除了到处看到全是穿着的白色法兰绒鞋和白帆布鞋以外,就很难寻找到任何夏日的踪迹。走进客厅,你会感到(用不着惊奇)暖气还在开放,使人心意舒畅。
走上甲板,你又会感到帽子、大衣、厚围巾、紧裹周身厚毯的适意。眺望眼前的无垠大海咆啸而冷峭,苍穹下云雾迷漫、水天一色,哪里有阳光灿烂、云彩绮丽,现在,你会说这是夏日、六月天吗?
文伯刚才提出一项卓越的计划,如果成功实现,艺术与金钱就会结合在一起。“去好莱坞干上譬如三年,赚上百万美元的财富。”他说这是他所能想到的好计划。
一九二八年六月二十三日加拿大皇后号