The visit in Naples extended itself into a week, as the girls needed to
replenish their wardrobes after the earthquake, and Mr. Alexander
thought it best to have a new spring for the car ordered to replace the
one that had received such a strain in the ditch.
A new schedule had been studied, and the route outlined a few weeks
before, was revised. Mr. Fabian said it would be best to go to Brindisi
and from there cross the Ionian Sea and visit Athens, as long as they
were so near. Then, from Athens, they could go to Pompeii and other
famous places, and finally take a steamer back to Genoa.
“I’ll have to crate the cars, then, and ship them across country to wait
for us at Genoa,” said Mr. Alexander.
“Let the men at the garage attend to it for you. We will be away about a
week, or so, and by that time the cars will have been delivered at
Genoa,” said Dodo.
“I should think it would save time and costs to send a chauffeur with
each car, to leave them with a garage at Genoa,” suggested Mr. Fabian,
so his idea was acted upon.
Everything was packed and the ladies were in the cars ready to start,
when Mr. Fabian turned to look for Mr. Alexander. He was not there.
“Did anyone see him during the last ten minutes?” asked he.
“No, he carried my suit-case downstairs fifteen minutes ago, but he did
not come back,” said Mrs. Alexander.
Mr. Fabian went to the hotel office again, and inquired of the clerk
whether he had seen Mr. Alexander.
He had not been seen, nor had he left any message at the desk. “Well,
then, I’ll have him paged, as we are ready to start,” said Mr. Fabian.
But the boys came back without any news of the missing man. Everyone got
out of the cars again and started in different directions in search of
their necessary “chauffeur.” By-standers were asked but no information
was gained of the man they all were seeking.
“Dear me, if that isn’t just like Ebeneezer!” complained Mrs. Alexander,
powdering her nose while she awaited results.
“I don’t see anything else to do, except to carry our luggage back to
the hotel and postpone our trip until tomorrow,” said Mr. Fabian.
“Don’t worry, Pa’ll come along soon and wonder why we worried over his
delay. He’s sure to give a splendid reason for this absence,” said Dodo.
A few moments after she had spoken, little Mr. Alexander was seen
running at top speed along the street. His hat was in his hand and he
was mopping his perspiring brow with a large silk handkerchief.
“Eben, what made you leave us? Didn’t you _know_ we were ready to
start?” complained his wife, the moment she saw him.
“Yeh, but I couldn’t help it, Maggie. Just as I got your duds to the
car, I stepped on a little dog. He yelped so I had to see what ailed
him, and that’s how I saw the child what owned the animal.
“If the little shaver hadn’t yelled as hard as the dog, I wouldn’t have
gone wid him. But I had to quiet the boy, and the dog limped so I had to
carry that. The boy lived a long way down a side street, and then
through an alley. But when I got to his home, the dog could jump about
and bark, so he is all right again.”
“Good gracious, Pa, did you waste all this time on carrying a mongrel
home?” laughed Dodo.
“Um, not all the time!” admitted Mr. Alexander. “When I saw that boy’s
home and his sick mother in bed, I hunted up a woman in the house and
made her go out for some things to eat. It seems they ain’t had any
money and so went hungry until she could work. I told the woman—but I
reckon she didn’t understand me—that she could thank the dog for the
food and help she got from me. Then I had to hurry back here.”
The tourists were on the vessel before Mrs. Alexander stopped nagging
her spouse and allowed him to enjoy the sail across the Ionian Sea. It
was a beautiful trip for the others in the party; they saw the blue sky
reflected in the bluer water, inhaled the perfume of thousands of
flowers blossoming riotously on the land and wafted by the balmy breezes
across the Sea, and they wondered if it were really true that but a few
days before, they were rushing frantically from an earthquake in Rome!
The present peace and calm were so different an experience—almost as if
they were in another world.
The first sight of Athens, from the sea, was very impressive to the
girls; they could see, upon the prominences that seemed to embrace the
ancient city, the wonderful historic ruins so carefully preserved there.
Mr. Fabian pointed out the Acropolis, the Temple of Hephæstus, the
Propylæa, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Parthenon, and other noted
architectural antiquities.
Several days were spent in Athens, visiting its vast wealth of past
ages, then Mr. Fabian arranged to proceed, with his friends, to Pompeii,
with its lure of restored ruins that had been buried for centuries.
From the scenes of Pompeii, they visited the Island of Ischia and its
wilderness of vineyards; then they went on to Capri with its
incomparable riot of color and natural beauties.
“I don’t see anything to keep us down here more than a day, or so, do
you-all?” asked Mrs. Alexander, bored to distraction without the
excitement of cities, or the speeding in her car.
“Oh Ma! we never saw anything so wonderful as these places, so don’t
rush us away the moment we get here,” cried Dodo.
“But, Dodo, what is there here to see but a lot of wild greens, and poor
people dressed in shawls and petticoats?” complained Mrs. Alexander.
“I ain’t saying a word, Ma, even if I can’t see all the fine things the
others seem to enjoy,” remarked Mr. Alexander. “But it _must_ be here,
somewhere, so I’m hunting for it with might and main.”
His wife merely turned up her educated nose at his words, but refused to
answer his earnest request for further time in which to find the hidden
secret of his friends’ pleasure.
Having seen all that was possible of the beautiful Islands of olden
times, the tourists boarded a steamer and sailed past Messina and
Corsica, up through the Gulf of Genoa, to the City of Genoa where the
two cars were awaiting them.
“My! I never was so glad to see a car in all my life!” sighed Mrs.
Alexander, eagerly examining her roadster to see if it was in good
condition for the continuation of the tour.
“From Genoa we can travel along the Coast of the Mediterranean and enjoy
the drive to the utmost, for we still have plenty of time to complete
our tour back to Paris, and meet Ashby when he plans to be there,” said
Mr. Fabian, as they got into the two autos and prepared to start.
The touring car led the way, Mrs. Alexander following, with Mrs. Fabian
seated beside her. Perhaps that lady might not have felt quite so
fearless with the chauffeur, if Mr. Fabian had not said that the road
was splendid and that there were no dangerous places for Mrs. Alexander
to run into.
They went through Savona, San Remo, and stopped at Monte Carlo to visit
the place and see the famous gambling house.
“Ebeneezer, don’t you go to that wicked house to play!” exclaimed Mrs.
Alexander, after they had refreshed themselves at the hotel and were
ready to walk about and see Monte Carlo.
“I woulden’ _think_ of doing such a thing, Maggie, with all these young
girls to set an example for,” returned the little man, with a serious
tone.
“I don’t want to go in there, at all,” declared Polly.
“It won’t hurt anyone to see it, Polly; they say it is one of the most
gorgeous places in the world. The decorations and architecture are
marvellous,” added Eleanor.
“Well, but don’t let us go near the gaming-tables,” Polly said,
grudgingly.
“Oh, no, not one on us would think of such a thing!” said Mr. Alexander,
but he watched an opportunity to make sure that a roll of money he
carried in his pocket, was still there.
They had done the outside of the place, admiring the beautiful parks and
the buildings, and then they thought they would have a peep inside, at
the halls and various rooms of the famous house.
“Where’s Ebeneezer?” suddenly asked Mrs. Alexander, as she trailed the
others into the Grand Reception Room.
“Why—he was here but a moment ago!” replied Mr. Fabian, glancing around
for the missing man.
“Didn’t I tell you what a care he was? I always have to keep him on a
leash when I want him to go, somewhere, with me. This is the same trick
he played on us at Brindisi—and almost made us miss the boat,”
complained the lady.
“He didn’t make _us_ miss it, Ma, but he ’most missed it himself,”
laughed Dodo.
“But he did a fine deed for a poor human, which goes to exonerate him
for being so late. Maybe he is helping someone, now,” remarked Mrs.
Fabian, who was sincerely proud of the little man’s depth of character,
even though he had never had the polish and opportunities given other
men.
“That’s what you-all think!” snapped Mrs. Alexander. “I bet you’ll find
him in the blackest gambling den of all this awful place.”
“Ma, you wait right where you are, and Mr. Fabian and I will find that
awful place and tell you if Pa is there,” said Dodo with a stern
expression.
“What! Let you go in such a place? No indeed! I’ll go with Mr. Fabian
myself if _anyone_ has to go,” declared Mrs. Alexander.
“I don’t want you to; you always nag at Pa and if you start in in a
crowd, I know just what he’ll do. It is better for me to go with Mr.
Fabian,—but I don’t believe he’s there!” declared Dodo.
“Perhaps Dodo is right, Mrs. Alexander. Let us go while you remain
quietly here with the others,” said Mr. Fabian.
So they hurried away, while the girls and the ladies walked about, or
sat down to watch the lovely scene in the Park. The two had been gone
about ten minutes, when Mr. Alexander was seen coming towards the group
on the bench, but he was not alone. A very pretty girl of about sixteen
years was with him. Dodo and Mr. Fabian were nowhere in sight.
“Hello there, Maggie,” called out Mr. Alexander, genially, as he came
within speaking distance of his wife. “I brought a ’Merican girl to
you-all, to take care of her as far as Nice. She thought she was lost,
but I soon showed her she was safe with us, until we landed her with her
folks.”
Everyone gazed at the well-dressed pretty girl in surprise. It was
evident from her red eyes that she had been crying a short time before.
But Mr. Alexander said no more about the incident at the moment, merely
introducing his companion as Genevieve Van Buren, of New York City.
“Where’s Dodo?” asked Mr. Alexander, suddenly missing his daughter when
he wished to introduce her to the newcomer.
“She went with my husband,” hastily replied Mrs. Fabian. “They’ll be
back in a few minutes. We are waiting for them, now.”
“Ebeneezer, where did you meet Miss Van Buren?” questioned his wife,
suspiciously.
“Oh, just outside that door, where we all went, last,” returned the
little man, indefinitely.
Mr. Fabian and Dodo were now seen coming out of the large building, and
Mr. Alexander glanced from them to his wife, with a knowing twinkle in
his eyes. Before anyone could say a word to Dodo, he spoke: “Well, so
you’ve been wastin’ all _your_ savings, too, eh?”
“Oh no! Mr. Fabian and I just wanted to see what the place looked like.
It is the most gorgeous hall I ever saw, and Mr. Fabian says it is well
worth seeing. Why don’t you come and have a look at it, Polly?” replied
Dodo.
When she was introduced to the strange girl, Dodo wondered how she came
to join their party but she said nothing. At last, Polly consented to go
and take a peep at the interior of the palace, but Miss Van Buren
preferred to remain on the bench with Mr. Fabian, while Mr. Alexander
escorted the ladies.
“That homely little man is wonderful, isn’t he?” asked Miss Van Buren,
in a humble little voice, when Mr. Fabian and she were quite alone.
“We think so. In fact, we like him so well that we fail to notice any
shortcomings.”
“I feel that I must tell someone what he did for me, a few moments ago,
although he was a total stranger,” continued the girl, her chin
quivering.
“Were you both in the gambling hall?” was all Mr. Fabian asked.
“No, but I had been there last night, and lost all my money in gambling.
Then I borrowed some cash, from a woman, on my jewels, and lost that
money, too. I never played before, and it was so terribly exciting that
I put aside every other thought but winning.
“The woman who had given me the money, had been very nice to me, when
she met me at the hotel; she it was who invited me to go with her to
visit the palace, just for fun. But it ended as such visits generally
do,” the girl’s lovely blue eyes filled with tears and she dabbed at
them, hurriedly.
“I was desperate, and wondered how I should get back to the party with
which I am touring Europe. I had no money to pay my way to Paris, and I
had nothing of value left with which I could get money.
“Mrs. Warburton who had been so kind, as I thought, had just proposed
paying my way to Paris and keeping me at her hotel until my party
arrived to call for me, when that little man walked slowly over and
stood looking at both of us.”
“‘Maybe you-all are an American?’ he asked Mrs. Warburton.
“She lifted her head and looked insolently at him. But she never said a
word. Then he went right on without caring how she looked. ‘I am an old
miner from the West. I’ve been in lots of evil places, and seen all
sorts of evil people, so I know one when I see and hear ’em. I’ve heard
all you offered to this young girl, but I’ll go your offer one better.
She comes with my wife and daughter and it won’t cost her a lifetime of
regrets.’”
The girl bowed her head and her slender form shook with sobs. Mr. Fabian
said nothing. He was too amazed to say a word.
Finally the girl continued, but her head was averted. “Something told me
to trust that homely little man so I looked at him and said, ‘I believe
you want to save me from some trouble?’
“‘That’s what I do, little gal. Just as I would want some one to help my
daughter if she needed help. Now tell me what’s all this about, and
maybe we can get down to brass tacks.’ He said it just that way,”
repeated Miss Van Buren, looking up at Mr. Fabian.
The gentleman smiled, and nodded understandingly.
“Well, he made that woman give up the jewels and he paid her back the
money for them, then he said to her: ‘You ought to be thankful that I am
touring with a party, or sure as I am a man, I’d hand you over to the
police for what I know you had planned in your evil mind.’ Then he made
me come away from her.
“When we were out of hearing he told me that from his experience in
mining-camps, and cities where miners go to spend their earnings, he
could tell that the woman was not right. He thinks she actually led me
_on_ to gamble, to ruin my chances of getting back to my friends.”
The innocent girl gazed at her companion, and Mr. Fabian nodded his head
understandingly, without saying a word. Then she continued: “But that is
terribly wicked! Why do they permit such things to happen here?”
“Why will people come here to visit the place with the sole idea of
going away with more money than they came? They ought to know that all
this lavish expenditure and display has to be maintained, and the money
for that comes out of the foolish gamesters who _always_ lose at such
tables,” said Mr. Fabian.
“I suppose I was very silly to leave my friends and come alone to Nice.
They wanted me to go with them, but I preferred this place to the Alps
and mountain climbing, so I agreed to meet them at Paris, later. I said
I was going to visit with some friends at Nice, but I believed I could
take care of myself. Now I think differently.”
Her voice was so repentant and meek that Mr. Fabian said: “Maybe this
lesson will prove to be the best one of your life. Let it teach you that
head-strong ways are always sure to end in a pitfall. And remember,
‘that a wolf generally prowls about in sheep’s clothing to devour the
innocent lamb.’ Thank goodness that you escaped the wolf—but thank Mr.
Alexander for being that goodness.”
The others returned, now, and as there was nothing more to visit at
Monte Carlo, they drove on to Nice to spend the night. The girls found
Genevieve Van Buren a most congenial companion and everyone showed a
keen desire to befriend her.
A telegram awaited her at Nice, and Mr. Alexander had the satisfaction
of reading it. Her friends, to whom he had wired from Monte Carlo when
he heard Genevieve’s story, said they would be at Paris the following
day.
Before Mr. Fabian and his companions drove away from Nice, they saw the
repentant girl safely on the train to Paris.
Having said good-by to Genevieve, the tourists left Nice; they drove to
Marseilles and the girls visited several mills where famous textiles are
woven.
Cannes was the next place the cars passed through, and then Aix was
reached. Mr. Fabian wished to stop long enough at this city, which was
founded B.C. 122 by a Roman named Sextius Calvinus, to show his students
the ruins and historic objects of antiquity.
At Avignon the tourists saw the famous bridge and the many notable and
ancient buildings—some ruins having remained there since the town was
founded by the Phœnicians in 600 B.C.
They stopped over-night at Avignon, and early in the morning, started
cross-country for Bordeaux. The roads were heavy and the travelling
slow, and they found it necessary to stop at the peasants’ homes and
ask, to make sure they were on the right road. At several of these
stops, Mr. Fabian and the girls acquired some old bits of pottery and
porcelain which the poor people were glad to sell, and the collectors
were over-joyed to buy.
All along the country route from Marseilles, the women seen wore
picturesque costumes, with heavy wooden shoes on their feet. These shoes
were lined with sheep-skin to protect the instep from bruises. The
children playing about their homes were scantily clothed, but their rosy
faces and plump little bodies spoke plainer than words, that they were
healthy and happy, and cared naught for style.
Quite often, when the cars passed over a stream, or ran along the banks
of a river, the occupants would see the peasant women washing linen in
the water. They knelt upon the bank, or upon a stone near the shore, and
beat the clothes with sticks as the water flowed through the pieces. The
garments were rinsed out and then wrung, before hanging upon the bushes
nearby to dry.
Mr. Alexander remarked: “Good for dealers in white goods.”