like a wholesome wind. Old residents lamented the loss of the priestly
pageants, _fêtes_, and ceremonies; but this republican spinster
preferred to see Rome guarded by her own troops, and governed by her own
King, who ordered streets to be cleaned, fountains filled, schools
opened, and all good institutions made possible, rather than any amount
of Papal purple covering poverty, ignorance, and superstition. Better
than the sight of all the red coaches that ever rumbled was the
spectacle of many boys quitting the Jesuit college and demanding
admittance into the free schools; and sweeter than the music of all the
silver trumpets that ever blew were the voices of happy men and women
singing once forbidden songs of liberty in the streets of Rome.
These sentiments, and others equally unfashionable, were only breathed
into the ear of sister Matilda when the two retired to the Campagna to
confide to one another the secrets of their souls--a process necessary
about once a week; for after visiting studios, going to parties, and
telling polite fibs about everything they saw, it was impossible to
exist without finding a vent of some sort. Once out among the aqueducts,
Matilda could freely own that she thought genius a rare article in the
studios, where she expected to learn so much; and Lavinia could make the
awful avowal that parties at which the order of performance was gossip,
tea, music--then music, tea, and gossip, all together--were not her idea
of intellectual society. Their criticisms on pictures and statues cannot
be recorded without covering their humble names with infamy; and why the
sky did not fall upon, or the stones rise up and smite these Vandals, is
a mystery to this day.
They did enjoy much in their own improper manner, but poor Amanda's
sufferings can better be imagined than described. So when Lavinia, early
in March, proposed to flee to the mountains before they became quite
demoralized, and learned to steal and stab, as well as lie and lounge,
she readily assented, and they retired to Albano.
'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was nothing to this, and
never have I seen such unappreciative women as you two,' sighed Amanda,
as they rolled away from Numero Due Piazza Barberini, leaving Agrippina
sobbing at the top of the stairs and the _padrona_ bobbing little
curtsies at the bottom.
'I am sure the Cenci will haunt me all my days, and so will many other
famous things,' said Matilda, while her eye roved fondly from a very
brown Capuchin monk to a squad of Bersaglieri trotting by with jaunty
cocks' feathers dancing in the wind, muskets gleaming, and trim boots
skipping through the mud with martial regularity.
'When I get the contents of my head sorted out, I shall doubtless
rejoice that I have seen Rome; but just now all that I can clearly
recall are the three facts that the Pope had a fit, our dear man Romeo
got very tipsy one night, and that we went to see the Sistine Chapel
the day the eclipse made it as dark as a pocket. Yes,' continued
Lavinia, with an air of decision, 'I _am_ glad to have seen this
classical cesspool, and still more glad to have got out of it alive,'
she added, sniffing the air from the mountains, as if the odour of
sanctity which pervaded the holy city did not suit her.
It blew great guns up at Albano, and the society consisted chiefly of
donkeys. But the ladies enjoyed themselves nevertheless, and felt better
and better every day; for early hours, much exercise, and no æsthetic
tea, soon set them up after the dissipation of the winter.
Three pleasing events diversified their stay. The first happened the day
after they arrived. The girls went forth early to look about them, and
to see if they could find a little apartment where all could be more
comfortable than in the breezy rooms at the hotel. Following the grassy
road that winds down the valley below the viaduct, they came to a lovely
garden, and, finding the gate open, went in. A queer old villa was
perched on the hill above, and a manly form was observed to be leaning
from a balcony, as if enjoying the fine view from the height.
'I fancied that house was empty, or we wouldn't have come in. Never
mind: we won't go back now; and if any one comes after us, we will
apologize and say we lost our way going to Ajaccio,' said Amanda, as
they went calmly forward among the posy-beds that lay blooming on the
hill-side.
It was well they prepared themselves, for the manly form suddenly
disappeared from the balcony, and a moment afterwards came swiftly
towards them through the shrubs.
A comely young gentleman, who greeted them with Italian grace, accepted
their apology smiling, and begged them to walk in his garden whenever
they liked. It was always open, he said, and the peasants often used
that path, admiring but never hurting a leaf. Hearing that they were in
search of an apartment, he instantly begged them to come up and look at
some rooms in the villa. His father was a refugee from France, and
desired to let a part of his house. Come and behold these delightful
rooms.
So charming was the interest he took in the errant damsels that they
could not resist, and after rolling up their eyes at one another to
express their enjoyment of the adventure, they graciously followed the
handsome youth into the villa.
With confiding hospitality he took them everywhere--into his mother's
room, the kitchen, and nursery. In the latter place they found two small
boys, who bore such a striking resemblance to Napoleon I. that the girls
spoke of it, and were enraptured at the reply they received.
'Truly yes: we belong to the family. My mother is a Buonaparte, my
father Count ----'
'Here's richness and romance!' 'What will Livy say?' whispered the girls
to one another, as their guide left them in the _salon_ and went to find
his father.
'She will scold us for coming here,' said Amanda, remembering her own
lectures on the proprieties.
'Yes; but she will forgive us the minute we say Napoleon, for that bad
little man is one of her heroes,' added Mat, pretending to be admiring
the view, while she privately examined a lady in a bower below--a stout,
dark lady, with all the family traits so strongly marked that there
could be no doubt of the young man's assertion.
Presently he came back with an affable old gentleman, who evidently had
an eye to the main chance; for, in spite of his elegance and affability,
he asked a great price for his rooms, and felt that any untitled
stranger should be glad to pay well for the honour of living under the
roof of a Buonaparte.
Amanda left the decision to her invisible duenna, and with a profusion
of compliments and thanks, they got away, being gallantly escorted to
the gate by the young count, who filled their hands with flowers, and
gazed pensively after them, as if he found the society of two bright
American girls very agreeable after that of his lofty parents, or the
peasantry of the town.
Home they ran and bounced in upon Livy, blooming and breathless, to
pour out their tale, and suggest an immediate departure to the blissful
spot where counts and crocuses flourished with Italian luxuriance.
But after the first excitement had subsided, Lavinia put a wet blanket
on the entire plan by declaring that she would never board with any
grasping old patrician, who would charge for every bow, and fall back on
his ancestors if he was found cheating. She would go and look at the
place, but not enter it, nor be beholden to the resident Apollo for so
much as a dandelion.
So the mourning damsels led the griffin over the viaduct, through the
dirty little town, by the villa on its least attractive side. Up at the
window were the two little Napoleonic heads, with big, black eyes,
strong chins, and dark hair streaked across wide, olive-coloured
foreheads. A vision of papa was visible in the garden pruning a vine
with gloves on his aristocratic hands, and a shabby velvet coat on his
highly connected back. Also, afar off on the balcony--oh, sight to touch
a maiden's heart!--was the young count gazing wistfully towards Albano.
He did not see the charmers as they crept down the rough road close to
the garden wall, and went sadly home, along the blooming path, to the
'Tomb of the Four Thimbles,' as Livy irreverently called the ruin which
has an ornament at each of its corners like a gigantic thimble of stone.
A note in Amanda's most elegant French, declining the apartments in the
name of Madame Duenna, closed the door of this Eden upon the wandering
peris, who entered never more. Now and then, as they went clattering by
on their donkeys to Lake Nemi, or some other picturesque spot,
They saw again the crocus bloom,
And, leaning from that lofty room,
Sir Launcelot with face of gloom
Look down to Camelot.
Up flew their veils and floated wide,
But Livy pinned them to her side,
'The curse has come upon us!' cried
The ladies of Shalott.
The second adventure befell Amanda alone, and in this wise.
Going one day to Rome, on business, she found herself shut up in a car
with a gorgeous officer and a meek young man, who read papers all the
way. The tall soldier, in his gray and silver uniform, with a furred,
frogged, and braided jacket, not to mention the high boots or the
becoming cap, was so very polite to the lone lady that she could not
remain dumb without positive rudeness. So Amanda conversed in her most
charming manner, finding inspiration doubtless in the dark eyes and
musical voice of her handsome _vis-à-vis_, for the officers from Turin
are things of beauty and joys for ever to those who love to look on
manly men.
Among other things, the two had a little joke about the Baron
Rothschild, who rode about Albano on a tiny donkey with two servants
behind him; also the Baroness, a painfully plain woman, with an ugly dog
the image of herself.
When they arrived at Rome, however, their joke was turned against them,
by the discovery that the meek man was the Baron's secretary, who would
doubtless repeat their chat at head-quarters. To see the handsome man
slap his brow, and then laugh like a boy at the fun, was worth a longer
journey, Amanda thought, as he put her into a carriage, gave her his
best martial salute, and went clanking away about his own affairs.
Amanda returned at 4 P.M., and her emotions may be imagined when the
dark face of her officer peered in at the car window, and the melodious
voice asked if he might be permitted to enter. Of course he might; and,
as no secretary now spoilt the _tête-à-tête_, Mars became delightfully
confidential, and poured his woes into the sympathising bosom of Amanda.
It had been a great affliction to him that his regiment was quartered at
Albano for some months. _Mio Dio!_ so dull was it, life had already
become a burden; but now, if the Signorina was to be there, if she
permitted him to make himself known to her party, what joys were in
store for him. The Signorina loved to ride. Behold he had superb horses
languishing in the stables, that henceforth were dedicated to her use.
His fellow officers were gentlemen of good family, brave as lions, and
dying of _ennui_; if they might be presented to the ladies, life would
be worth having, and Albano a paradise, &c.
To all this devotion the prudent Amanda listened with pleasure, but
promised nothing till Signore Mars had made the acquaintance of certain
American gentleman and married ladies, then it would be possible to
enjoy the delights of which he spoke. The Colonel vowed he would
instantly devote himself to this task, and thus they came to the lonely
little station at Albano.
Amanda had ordered the carriage to meet her; but it was not there, and
she was forced to wait till all her fellow-passengers were gone. All but
the gallant officer, who decorously remained outside, marching to and
fro as if on guard, till his servant came with his horse. Then he begged
to be allowed to see why the carriage did not come, and Amanda
consented, for night was falling, and two miles of mud lay between her
and home.
Away dashed the servant, but his master did not follow: standing in the
doorway, he declared that he must remain as the Signorina's protector,
for no trains were due for hours; the dépôt man was gone, and it was too
late for any lady to stay there alone. Again Amanda gratefully
consented, wondering what would be the end of her adventure; and again
the stately Colonel resumed his march outside, singing as he tramped,
and evidently enjoying the escort duty that gave him so good an
opportunity of displaying not only his gallantry, but his fine voice and
handsome figure.
Down rattled the carriage at last, accompanied, to Amanda's dismay, by
three of the Colonel's friends, who had evidently received a hint of
the affair, and had come to have a hand in it.
With much bowing of the gentlemen, and much prancing of their fine
horses, Amanda was handed to her seat, and went lumbering back to the
hotel with her splendid escort careering about her, to the great
edification of the town.
When the rescued damsel told the tale to her mates, Matilda tore her
hair and lamented that she had not been there. Even the stern Livy had
no lecture for the erring lamb, but was as full of interest as either of
the girls, for anything in the shape of a soldier was dear to her heart.
When the ladies rode forth next day, three elegant St. Georges in full
rig saluted as these modern Unas ambled by on their meek donkeys--a
performance punctually executed ever afterward whenever the three blue
veils appeared. Much curvetting went on before the hotel door; much
clanking of spurs and sabres was heard in the little lane on to which
the apartment of the ladies looked, and splendid officers seemed to
spring up like violets in secluded spots where maidens love to stroll.
It was all very nice; and the girls were beginning to feel that the
charms of Albano rivalled those of Rome, when a sad blow upset their
castles in the air, and desolated the knights over the way.
The highly respectable Americans who were to serve as the link between
the soldiers and the ladies decidedly declined the office, objecting to
the martial gentleman as being altogether too dangerous to bring into
the dove-cot. So the poor dears sighed in vain, and the longing damsels
never rode the fine horses that were temptingly paraded before them on
all occasions.
They did their best; but it was soon evident to Lavinia that in some
unguarded moment the impetuous Mat would yield to the spell and go
gambading away for a ride _sans_ duenna, _sans_ habit, _sans_ propriety,
_sans_ everything. Amanda likewise seemed losing her head, and permitted
the dark-eyed Colonel to talk to her when they met; only a moment--but
what a perilous moment it was!--when this six-foot Mars leaned over a
green hedge and talked about the weather in the softest Italian that
ever melted a woman's heart.
'I'm going to Venice next week; so you may as well make up your minds to
it, girls. I _cannot_ bear this awful responsibility any longer; for I
am very sure you will both be off to Turin with those handsome rascals
if we stay much longer. My mind is made up, and I won't hear a word.'
Thus Lavinia, with a stern countenance; for the romantic old lady felt
the charm as much as the girls did, and decided that discretion was the
better part of valour for the whole party.
'I should never dare to go home and tell my honoured parents that Mat
had run away with a man as handsome as Jove, and as poor as Job.
Amanda's indignant relatives would rise up and stone me if I let her
canter into matrimony with the fascinating Colonel, who may have a wife
and ten children in Turin, for all we know. They _must_ be torn away at
once, or my character as duenna is lost for ever.'
Having made up her mind, Livy steeled her heart to all appeals, and
wrote letters, packed trunks, and watched her little flock like a
vigilant sheep-dog.
How she would ever have got them through that last week is very
uncertain, if a providential picnic had not helped her.
A fair was held in the town, and a delightful surprise-party was got up
among the artists of Rome. Twenty-five came driving over in a big
carriage, with four gaily decorated horses, postilions, hampers of
lunch, flutes and horns, and much jollity bottled up for the occasion.
A very festive spectacle they made as they drove through the narrow
streets with flowers and streamers in their hats, singing and joking in
true artistic style.
They meant to have lunched in the open air; but, as it was cloudy,
decided to spread the feast at the hotel. Such a delightful revel as
followed! A scene from the 'Decameron,' modernised, would give some idea
of it; for after the banquet all adjourned to the gardens of the Doria
Villa, and there disported themselves as merrily as if all the plagues
of life were quite forgotten, and death itself among the lost arts.
Flirting and dancing, charades and singing, stories and statues, poems
and pictures, gossip and gambols, absorbed the hours as pleasantly as in
the olden time. And if the costumes were not as picturesque as those in
Vedder's fine picture, the ladies were as lovely, the gentlemen as
gallant, and all much better behaved than those of Boccaccio's party.
A few drops of rain quenched the fun at its height, and sent the
revellers home as fast as four horses could take them, leaving the town
gaping after them, and our ladies much enlivened by the delights of the
day.
This third and last event pleasantly ended their sojourn at Albano; for
a day or two later they vanished, leaving the dear officers
disconsolate till the next batch of travelling ladies came to comfort
their despair.
A week was spent in Venice, floating about all day from one delightful
old church to another, or paying visits to Titians and Tintorettos;
buying little turtles, photographs, or Venetian glass; eating candied
fruit and seeing the doves fed in the square of San Marco; visiting
shops full of dusty antiquities, or searching the stalls on the Rialto
for Moor's-head rings; being rowed to the Lido by Giacomo in a red sash;
and lulled to sleep at night by the songs of a chorus that floated under
the windows in the moonlight.
Lavinia never could get used to seeing the butcher, the baker, and the
postman go their rounds in boats. Matilda was in bliss, with a gondola
all to herself, where she sat surrounded with water-colours, trying to
paint everything she saw; for here the energy she had lost at Rome
seemed to return to her. Amanda haunted a certain shop, trying to make
the man take a reasonable sum for a very ancient and ugly bit of
jewellery, which she called 'a sprigalario,' for want of a better name;
and after each failure she went off to compose herself with a visit to
the Doges.
Of course they all saw the Bridge of Sighs and the dungeons below, with
their many horrors; likewise a Mass at St. Mark's, where the Patriarch
was a fat old soul in red silk, even to his shoes and holy
pocket-handkerchief; and the service appeared to consist in six purple
priests dressing and undressing him like an old doll, while a dozen
white-gowned boys droned up in a gold cock-loft, and many beggars whined
on the dirty floor below.
Do other travellers eat locusts, I wonder, as ours did one sunny day,
sitting on church steps, and discover that the food of the Apostle was
not the insect whose 'zeeing' foretells hot weather; but the long, dry
pods of the locust-tree, sweet to the taste, but rather 'dry fodder,' as
the impious Livy remarked after choking herself with a quarter of a yard
of it.
When the week was up Mat implored to be left behind with Angela, the
maid, and Brio, a big poodle possessed of the devil. But she was torn
away, and only consoled by the promise of many new gloves, with as many
buttons as she pleased, when they got to Munich.
'The lakes are the proper entrance into Italy, and Venice a lovely exit.
One soon tires of it, and is ready to leave, which is an excellent
arrangement, though I should prefer to depart in some more cheerful
vehicle than a hearse,' observed Lavinia, as they left the long, black
gondola at the steps of the station.
'Haven't you a sigh for those lovely lakes, a tear for Albano, a pang of
regret for Rome?' asked Amanda, hoping to wring one moan for Italy from
the old lady.
'Not a sigh, not a tear, not a regret. I find I like them all better the
farther I get from them, and by the time I am at home I may be able to
say "I adore them," but I doubt it,' returned the incorrigible Livy, and
from that moment Amanda regarded her Granny as one dead to all the dear
delusions of antiquity.
VI.
_LONDON._
'From this moment I cease to be the commander-in-chief. Livy adores
England, can speak the language, understands the money, and knows all
about London; so _she_ shall be leader, and I will repose after my long
labour.' With this remark Amanda retired from office covered with glory,
and her mates voted to erect a statue in her honour as a token of their
undying gratitude.
Lavinia took the lead from the moment they landed at St. Catherine's
Warf; and though somewhat demoralized by a rough passage of eighteen
hours from Antwerp, was equal to the occasion. She did love England, and
thought London the most delightful city in the world, next to Boston.
Its mud and fog were dear to her; its beef and beer were nectar and
ambrosia, after the continental slops and messes; its steady-going,
respectable citizens, beautiful in her eyes, and the words 'home' and'
comfort' were not an idle mockery here.
Therefore the old lady joyfully sniffed the smoky air, gazed with
tenderness on the grimy houses, and cast herself, metaphorically
speaking, into the arms of a stout, ruddy-faced porter, as if at last
she had found a man and a brother.
Nobly did the burly Briton repay her confidence and earn the shilling
which in England makes all things possible. He bore them to the station,
got tickets, checked luggage, put the ladies in a first-class
compartment, gave them all necessary directions about the hotel they
were after, and when the bell rang touched his cap with a smile upon his
dear, red face, which caused Lavinia to add a sixpence to the shilling
she gave him with a mental blessing.
'This is truly a decent country. See how well one is cared for, how
civil everybody is, how honest, how manly,' began Livy, as she mounted
her hobby, and prepared for a canter over the prejudices of her friend;
for Amanda detested England because she knew nothing of it.
'The cabman cheated us, asking double fares,' replied the dear girl,
wrapping herself in many cloaks and refusing to admire the fog.
'Not at all,' cried Livy; 'the trunks were immense, and you'll find we
shall have to pay extra for them everywhere. It is the same as having
them weighed and paying for the pounds, only this saves much time and
trouble. Look at the handsome guard in his silver-plated harness. How
much nicer he is than a gabbling Italian, or a Frenchman who compliments
you one minute and behaves like a brute the next! It does my soul good
to see the clean, rosy faces, and hear good English instead of
gibberish.'
'Never in my life have I seen such tall, fine-looking men, only they are
all fair, which isn't my style,' observed Matilda, with a secret sigh
for the dark-eyed heroes from Turin.
Thus conversing, they soon came to the G---- Hotel just at the end of the
railway, and without going out of the station found themselves settled
in comfortable rooms.
'Regard, if you please, these toilette arrangements--two sorts of
bath-pan, two cans of cold water, one of hot, two big pitchers, much
soap, and six towels about the size of table-cloths. I call that an
improvement on the continental cup, saucer, and napkin accommodation,'
said Lavinia, proudly displaying a wash-stand that looked like a
dinner-table laid for a dozen, such was the display of glass, china, and
napery.
'The English certainly are a clean people,' replied Amanda, softening a
little as she remembered her fruitless efforts to find a bath-pan in
Brittany, where the people said the drought was caused by the English
using so much water.
'They need more appliances for cleanliness than any other race, because
they live in such a dirty country,' began Matilda, removing the soot
from her face in flakes.
What more she might have said is unknown; for Livy closed her mouth with
a big sponge, and all retired to repose after the trials of the past
night.