The Island of Love (Camfield Series No. 15) by Barbara Cartland

at this dead-and-alive place on the other side of the world, it will be as boring as this is, if not more so!”
    “How can you know that until you reach Honolulu?” Lydia asked. “And think how lovely it will be to see the sun and feel really warm!”
    “I hope you remembered to pack all my sunshades,” Heloise said. “You know how delicate my skin is and must not get sunburnt.”
    “Yes, of course I remembered and put in all the ones that match your gowns,” Lydia replied, “and you also have some big shady hats.”
    When they reached the Rocky Mountains Lydia was so excited that she tried to imbue Heloise with some of her own delight at everything she saw.
    It was not only the beauty of the mountains themselves, but the glaciers, the half-frozen rivers, and the incredible engineering feat which had been achieved in building a railroad through to California!
    There were also the people they saw at every stop. Here at last, Lydia had a sight of the strange and different types of people who she knew had come to California in the Gold Rush and whose descendants were still struggling to find gold.
    Forty thousand immigrants had, she learned, arrived from Europe, South America and Mexico, and Australia sent its ‘Sydney Ducks’ who were frequently ex-convicts.
    There were also the Chinese who helped to build the railways and there seemed to be a mixed collection of nationalities at every station.
    Lydia looked at them with wide eyes, but Heloise would not even go to the window of the Rail Road Car to look.
    “Why should I concern myself with a lot of common, rough people like that?” she asked.
    Lydia knew she was thinking of the aristocrats she had met in London and was resenting travelling further and further away from what she called ‘civilisation,’ even though the Earl was with her.
    When they stopped at a station at the foot of one of the highest mountains and were told they could explore the tiny hamlet outside for an hour before the train moved off again, Lydia set out with the Earl and her father.
    But they had only gone a little way before Sir Robert stopped and said he had a blister on his heel and intended to return to the train.
    “Go on without me,” he said. “It is nothing serious and I will tell my valet not to give me these boots again.”
    He walked away and Lydia looked a little apprehensively at the Earl.
    “Do you mind if I come with you?” she asked.
    “I should be very disappointed if I have to go alone,” the Earl replied. “I want you to tell me your impressions of what you have seen so far.”
    “It is fascinating beyond words!”
    “I saw you looking intently at the different types of people who were on the station just now,” he said. “It was almost as if you were looking for something.”
    She smiled because she thought that was what he was always doing, and replied:
    “I was thinking that the Gold Rush symbolised something which all men—and women for that matter—want.”
    “Gold?” the Earl asked cynically.
    “No, hope!” Lydia answered. “I am convinced that it was not only greed that brought so many people here in 1849 from every part of the world. It was hope which turned them into explorers, hope which sustained them through the incredible hardships they endured, which of course resulted in many of them dying.”
    “I have never heard it explained like that before,” the Earl remarked.
    “I think it is the same feeling that made the heroes of legend go out in search of the Golden Reece and the Holy Grail, and it was hope that stimulated Captain Cook to go further and further on his voyage of discovery until of course he finally found Hawaii.”
    “And what do you hope to find?” the Earl enquired. As if she was surprised at his suddenly becoming personal Lydia thought before she replied:
    “I have always hoped for many things which I never imagined for one moment would ever really materialise, and yet, incredibly and unbelievably, through you I have