AT AJACCIO.
The inevitable Mediterranean roll was in less force than usual when
we crossed to Corsica, and as we were all pretty fair sailors we had
a pleasant passage, notwithstanding the anticipations to the contrary
of our especial waiter at the Cannes hotel. He was a brisk, cheery
little fellow, with such a power of sympathising with other people
that he always identified himself with those guests who were under
his particular care, and took their affairs to heart almost as though
they were his own. Going to sea and being sea-sick meant precisely
the same thing to him; consequently, from the moment he heard of our
contemplated trip he became full of compassion for the sufferings we
must undergo, and was good-naturedly eager to think of, and suggest,
every possible alleviation for the misery which he confidently
predicted for us. As we departed from the hotel his final words were
to impress upon my two ladies that, last thing before going to sea,
one should always eat a hearty meal, because, "ça-facilite--et sans
ça, c'est si fatigante." I am sorry to have to add, however, that
this well-intentioned speech was received in by no means as friendly
a spirit as that in which it was offered. For it was quite contrary
to Mrs. Rollin's notions of propriety that one who was a man, and
an inferior, should presume publicly to give her advice as to the
management of her interior; so, instead of making the amicable
response that was evidently expected, she swept past him with a
freezing look and an audible remark to Kitty about the atrocious
vulgarity of foreign servants who had never been taught to know their
place.
When we arrived at Ajaccio we separated from Lord Clement, he
remaining on board _La Catalina_, whilst we proceeded to a hotel.
During the voyage Kitty had been more civil to him than usual,--perhaps
as a reward for his assistance in persuading her aunt to come to
Corsica,--and this favourable humour still continued on reaching
_terra firma_. A question hazarded by him as we left the yacht, as
to what should be done next day, was replied to by her with a
graciousness which made it apparent that his company would be
acceptable, if he chose to join her and her aunt in whatever they
might be doing.
Accordingly, I was not surprised to see him appear at our hotel first
thing next morning. Shortly afterwards they all three sallied forth
to see the pictures at the _Collège_ Fesch; then they ordered a
basket to be packed with provisions, and, the weather being splendid,
hired a carriage and drove off for a day's outing beyond Pisciatella.
The special object of the two younger people was sketching, to which
Kitty was greatly addicted, and for which she had a decided talent.
Lord Clement, on the contrary, had no natural gift in that line;
but, none the less, he strove laboriously to acquire the art, because
he regarded drawing as a highly moral, elevating, correct, and
unexceptionable amusement, and therefore one to be cultivated and
encouraged as much as possible. As for Mrs. Rollin, she had a French
novel in her pocket, and would be perfectly happy to bask in the sun
and read whilst her companions sketched or flirted, as might seem
good in their own eyes.
My employers being thus disposed of for the day, I was left alone
with nothing particular to do. The streets were too filthy to be very
inviting, so, being a good walker, I went for a stretch along the
road towards the Isles Sanguinaires. It was a lovely day, and I
thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the walk, and the contrast between
winter, represented by snow-covered Monte Oro in the distance, and
summer, felt in the hot sunshine that warmed me through and through,
and sparkled on the brilliant blue sea beside the road. And when I
got beyond the limits of the town there were wild hillsides rising
on my right, all covered with low bushes of some kind of cistus,
which, though now brown and scrubby-looking, would be beautiful, I
thought, when in full bloom.
But I must not expatiate on the scenery, as that has nothing to do
with my story. What I saw in the course of that walk, to which I now
wish particularly to call attention, is this: Near the outskirts of
the town I came to a number of small houses standing pretty close
together on one side of the road. Each was in the middle of a little
plot of ground, which was surrounded either by a wall, or else by
strong iron railings; and this enclosure was only to be entered by a
gate, whence a short drive led to the door of the house within. Some,
but not all, had a family name stuck up at the entrance; and some of
the plots of ground were merely turfed over, whilst others were
nicely laid out in flower-beds and borders.
One would naturally have concluded these buildings to be villas, if
it had not been for the curious fact of their being destitute of
windows. This puzzled me; for I did not suppose that Corsicans could
be different from the rest of the world in disliking to live in
windowless habitations.
Whilst I was staring at these mysterious houses, and wondering what
they were for, a funeral came along the main road, and turned into
the gate of the outer enclosure of one of them. This excited my
curiosity still more, so I addressed myself to a respectable looking
passer-by, and asked him what those little villas were, and to whom
they belonged. He replied that they were "chapelles mortuaires," or,
in other words, private burialplaces, and that each one belonged
to a different family. On questioning further, I learnt that these
"chapelles mortuaires" were by no means peculiar to the neighbourhood
of towns, but were found in remote parts of the island also, as the
possession of them was quite customary amongst all Corsicans.
I thanked the man for his information, and continued my walk. I
thought it seemed a quaint idea to build villa residences for the
dead, and I then dismissed the subject from my mind. Certainly it
never entered my head that I myself was destined before long to make
acquaintance with the interior of one.
That evening I discovered that Kitty had a new scheme in her head.
What instigated her to it I cannot say. It may have been the spirit
of perversity, or else a guide-book which she had been studying
diligently; or else, perhaps, that she was tired of being civil to
Lord Clement, and wanted to escape from him for a while. But anyhow,
for some reason or other, it had been borne in upon her that it
would be the most delightful thing possible to make a fortnight's
driving-tour through the island for the purpose of seeing the country
and sketching. Knowing that she would probably have a difficulty in
getting her aunt to consent to this scheme, she did not intend to
propound it until she had first ascertained that it was really
feasible, and also found out whatever information might be requisite
for its execution.
Her first step, therefore, was to impart the project to me, telling
me that she wished me to make inquiries as to various matters
connected with it--such as what sort of inns were to be found at the
small inland towns; whether the roads were in good condition for
travelling on; whether they were likely to be blocked by snow in the
mountainous districts; what it would cost to hire a carriage; who was
the best jobmaster in Ajaccio, etc.
I was charmed at a plan which harmonised so well with my own love of
change and adventure, and entered into it readily. Being curious to
know whether she contemplated being accompanied by Lord Clement or
not, I put a fishing question to that effect. "What sized carriage am
I to ask about?" said I; "how many must it hold?"
"Why, my aunt and I, and you, _of course_," she answered rather
sharply, as if not well pleased at my having entertained a doubt on
the subject. "I should have thought you might have known that
yourself. We should only take a couple of carpet bags with us, and
leave the heavy luggage behind, so as to travel as light as possible;
therefore we shouldn't want at all a big carriage. It should be an
open one, and have a hood to put up in case of rain."
Oh, thought I, on hearing this, evidently then my lord is meant to be
left to himself; his fair weather has not lasted long after all. I
suppose that she has been putting a strain on herself to be civil to
him, that now comes the reaction, and that she is going to fly off at
a tangent from the line of conduct which was dictated by worldly
policy, and not by natural inclination. Well, it does not matter to
me whether she marries him or not, so I do not want to interfere one
way or other; I have only to look on at the play and be amused. I
hope she will be able to carry out this driving-tour scheme anyhow;
for it is just the sort of thing I should like myself.
I lost no time in performing her commission to the best of my ability.
Entering into casual conversations with sundry natives--waiters, for
instance, a couple of talkative shopkeepers, and the driver of a
fiacre who was sunning himself on the steps of his vehicle--I
cautiously led up to the topics which I had been told to find out
about, knowing that a stranger was more likely to arrive at an
honest opinion in this indirect way than by blunt, straightforward
inquiries. By means of questions that were apparently purposeless, I
elicited a good deal of information as to the relative merits of
different hostelries and individuals, which might very likely have
been withheld if I had let it be seen that I had any especial reason
for wishing to know. Thus I learnt too who was reputed the best
_patron des voitures_, and how much would be the probable difference
between what he would _ask_ and what he would _take_ for the hire of
a carriage; this difference being a sum of from 8 to 12 francs a day,
according to the opinion he happened to form of the hard-headedness
and determination not to be cheated of whoever engaged him.
Having found out as much as I could, I passed it all on to Kitty,
who, armed with this knowledge, took the opportunity of hair-brushing
time that same evening to suggest the driving-tour to Mrs. Rollin.
That lady at once pronounced the scheme wild and impracticable. On
being asked why, she brought forward all the objections she could
think of, every one of which was met and answered by Kitty with a
readiness that quite staggered her aunt. Mrs. Rollin had been far too
much engrossed in one of Zola's novels to notice the attention with
which her niece had recently been perusing books of Corsican travel;
and the unexpected and intimate acquaintance with the subject
suddenly displayed by Kitty almost took away the aunt's breath.
Evidently it had never occurred to her that there was a possibility
of Kitty's thus making up her mind, and finding out all requisite
particulars, without having given a single hint of what she was
thinking of. Yet here was the plan, all cut and dried and ready,
with every detail gone into.
Certainly the girl made the most of what she had read and heard; and
no one, to hear her talk, would have believed that this was her first
visit to the island. She discoursed learnedly about where the best
scenery was; what towns had good accommodation; what were the names
of the various inns; and what the cost of living and of the carriage
would be. She had got up her subject thoroughly; had an answer ready
for all difficulties that it was possible to suggest; made everything
look _couleur-de-rose_; and quoted, as a precedent for what she
wanted to do, which would have weight with her hearer, the example
of an English lady of rank and fashion, who had been travelling about
in Corsica a few years before, and of whom she had just happened to
hear. Kitty's energy, skill in pleading her cause, and powers of
persuasion, were more than her admiring and less strong-willed
relative could resist. The scheme, as thus set forth, appeared quite
delightful; Lord Clement was on board his yacht, beyond reach of
being taken into consultation; and so the end of the matter was,
that Mrs. Rollin assented to all that Kitty wished, and that I
consequently received orders to go out the first thing next morning
and arrange for hiring a carriage.
This I accordingly did; and as I passed through the streets towards
the residence of the _patron des voitures_, I met Lord Clement on his
way to the hotel, looking just as usual--that is to say, the essence
of propriety, clean, well-dressed, placid, gentlemanlike, English,
and (to my mind,) uninteresting. I did not dislike him, but his
intense love of respectability and correctness aggravated me; and I
thought, maliciously, that his present placid satisfaction would be
ruffled by the news of the contemplated expedition, and that I should
like to see his face when he heard of it. For it could hardly be
expected that a man who had brought the object of his affections to a
place where he hoped to be able to be with her daily, would relish
the sudden discovery that she was going to leave him in the lurch,
and take herself off out of his reach for a fortnight at least, if
not longer.