Kitty replied, "No, Baba. Don't the boys [mandali] have them?"
Kitty had given them to the clerk in the hotel when they registered. In the hurry of leaving that morning, she had forgotten to collect them. The train was about to leave and Baba gave orders to unload the luggage.
Kitty was distraught over her negligence, but Baba was as calm as ever, spelling on the board, "Do not worry. We will have lunch and take a gondola ride on the canal. I can do more work here, and we can take the night train to Paris."
A telegram was sent to Ruano in Paris about the delay. Kitty thereby learned more about the Master's ever-constant vigilance. (Many of the Indian passengers from their ship were on that train, so it appeared Baba wished to avoid further contact with them, also.) Enid left for Milan on the 2:30 P.M. train. Baba went for a stroll with Kitty and Minta while the mandali stayed at the station to watch over their belongings.
Baba and the group left Venice on the 6:50 P.M. train and reached Milan that evening at 11:30. Even at that late hour, Mr. Winfred and two others were waiting to see him.
The group arrived in Paris at two o'clock Sunday afternoon, 8 October 1933. Ruano, Norina and Quentin were present at the station to greet them. Baba checked into the Hotel Vouillement and then went to Ruano's apartment (at 16, Rue Lauriston), where about 50 people had gathered for his darshan. He saw them all in less than three hours. Among those he met were Otto Haas-Heye, his ex-wife Countess Victoria of Eulenburg and their daughter Ottora.1
When Ruano's daughter Bijou Martin went in to see Baba, Ruano introduced her saying, "Baba dear, this is Biji, my baby."
Bijou immediately said, "Mother is much more of a baby than I am!"
Baba spelled out on the board, " Baba also means baby, so we are three babies."
Baba was so loving to Ruano and her daughter that both were deeply affected, causing Ruano to ask Baba why he was so kind to her and Bijou.
"Because you were kind to me long ago in Egypt," Baba revealed.2
A photograph and a complimentary article about Baba appeared in a Parisian newspaper and several French people were anxious to meet him. Despite that, Baba left for London at 8:20 the next morning. There were now ten people traveling with him.
Footnotes
- 1.Countess Victoria was the daughter of Prince Eulenburg, a close friend of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and a member of German royalty.
- 2.Tallulah Bankhead was a friend of Bijou Martin and had stayed at Bijou's apartment in New York for a time (around 1920), when both were unknown actresses.