The meeting with Verne and his wife was completely worth it. Nellie and Honorine Verne took to one another right away, as much as two people unable to speak a common language possibly could – holding hands and smiling at one another on the ride from the train station to the Verne home. Over tea in his living room, Verne was impressed at Nellie’s preparations and charmed by her personality, but was incredulous at her ambition. “It really is not to be believed that this little girl is going all alone around the world. Why, she looks like a mere child.” (Verne was 61 at the time.)
His wife was quick to set him straight: “Yes, but she is just built for work of that sort. She is trim, energetic, and strong. I believe, Jules, that she will make your heroes look foolish. She will beat your record. I am so sure of that that I will wager with you if you like.”
Verne shook his head. “I would not like to risk my money,” he said, “because I feel sure, now that I have seen the young lady, that she has the character to do it.”
After a warm good-bye, Nellie left the Vernes and barely caught her train from Calais to Brindisi, a three-day journey of 1000 miles to the southern tip of Italy. In the meantime word of her meeting with the Vernes spread throughout all of Europe. In the Pall Mall Gazette of London, Jules Verne said that “what took the hearts of both myself and Mrs. Verne was the complete modesty of the young person.” He called her “the prettiest young girl imaginable.”
This did not offer much solace on her three-day journey, however. She became so bored that after arriving in Brindisi, she wrote a cable to the World in New York and was so glad to be mentally engaged that she almost missed her boat to Port Said.
Next. . . on to Egypt!