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In the site:
As
one's eyes became accustomed to the dim green light one noticed the
incongruity of the furniture: the horsehair chairs and sofa, and large
accountant's desk with ledgers; the large Pleyel grand piano; a
bookcase, in which all the books were rare copies or priceless MSS.
Janovicz saw you
with her in Santa Maria della Salute the other day, and could have
followed her home quite easily if he had been so inclined.
I saw three prisoners captured and brought back, and when I
asked the officer in command how many had escaped he said three--
Croppo's wife, the priest, and another.
Croppo says it must have been magic, for he had searched you and he
knew you were not armed, and he was within a hundred yards of you when
poor Pippo fell, and he heard no sound.
"
I am afraid my account of the episode with which I have acquainted the
reader was not strictly accurate in all its details, as I did not wish
to bring down my military friends on poor Valeria; so I skipped all
allusion to her and my detention in her home, merely saying that I had
had a scuffle with brigands and had been fortunate enough to escape
under cover of the night.
"There is nothing to be afraid of, lovely Valeria," I said, in a low
tone, as I lingered behind; "be sure I will never betray either your
or your rascally--hem! I mean your excellent Croppo.
They all seemed rather astonished
at our group, and the captain laughed heartily as he rode up and
called out, "Who have you got tied to you there, /caro mio/?"
"Croppo's wife.
For instance:
"Administered extreme unction to A----, shot by Croppo's order; my
share ten scudi.
By that night's mail he
despatched a letter home which gave the greatest delight at the Court,
and also at the vicarage, for Mr.
"
Smiling at this ambiguous compliment, I gave her the sketch she
desired, and was about to claim my reward, when she abruptly remarked:
"There is not time now; it is getting late, and I must not linger, as
I have still an hour to go before reaching home.
What does he care
about my ears?" And I laughed with such scornful contempt that Croppo
this time felt that he had made a fool of himself, and I observed the
lovely girl behind, while the corners of her mouth twitched with
suppressed laughter, make a sign of caution.
" But my allusion was lost upon
him, and I saw my charmer touch her forehead significantly, as though
to imply to Croppo that I was weak in the upper story.
"
He called Heaven to witness that he had never made a bet in his life
with any young gentleman, but that, having been molested, he believed
by a footpad, as he was returning home to his family, he had been
compelled to defend himself.
Richard was very amenable, and indeed
showed no desire for dissipation; his one weakness--that of having a
"spree"--had no opportunity of being gratified; and Maitland wrote
home the most gratifying letters, not only respecting the behaviour of
his charge, but of the improvement in his health.
"
"And you will have the pleasure of seeing her back, I imagine; for as
for my rascal of a boy, I mean to take him off home with me as soon as
he arrives; and I can assure you that I have no intention of providing
myself with a daughter-in-law in the course of the day.
Be that as it may, when once the
exasperated parents had discovered that they both really wanted the
same thing,--namely, to recover possession of their respective
offspring, to go home, and never meet each other again,--a species of
truce was soon agreed upon between them for the purpose of separating
the two lovers, who all this time were locked in each other's arms, in
the prettiest attitude in the world, vowing loudly that nothing should
ever part them.
"I shall never see you again, Signor Inglese," she said, with a sigh;
"for Croppo says it is not safe, after what happened the night before
last, to stay another hour.
At first he was denied to us, but after a
while we got his servant to acknowledge that he was at home, and then
we made our way up to his studio.
"I enclose you a check," he wrote, "just
sufficient to comfortably bring you home and pay your hotel bill, and
exceedingly regret that I cannot trust my son with more--lest he
should risk it in a way that gives his mother and myself more distress
of mind than I can express.
On the contrary, he had sent
home a remittance, as it were, by the butler, of more than five
thousand pounds.
Valeria told me that
she was still a bride, that she had only been married a few months,
and that she had been compelled to become Croppo's wife against her
choice, as the brigand's will was too powerful to be resisted; but
that, though he was jealous and attached to her, he was stern and
cruel, and, so far from winning her love since her marriage, he had
rather estranged it by his fits of passion and ferocity.
"And who is he, this Jack?"
"He's a dear boy," said Goneril, "and very clever; he is going home
for the Indian civil-service exam; he has been out to Calcutta to see
my father.
It was by this simple means, and by thus imposing myself upon the
hospitality of these unsophisticated people, that I worked my way, by
slow degrees, chiefly on foot, into the part of the country I desired
to visit; and I trust that I in a measure repaid them for it by the
stores of information which I imparted to them, and of which they
stood much in need, and by little sketches of their homes and the
surrounding scenery, with which I presented them.
In the end, however, and not without much objection, the landlord
advanced a sufficient sum to enable Richard to telegraph home.
About eighteen months after this I heard of the capture and execution
of Croppo, and I knew that Valeria was free; but I had unexpectedly
inherited a property and was engaged to be married.
"
We all felt a little anxiety to hear O'Brien's account of the matter,
and after having deposited the ladies at their homes Mackinnon and I
went off to his lodgings.
"
"Croppo is not far wrong," I said, glad of the opportunity thus
offered of imposing on the ignorance and credulity of the natives.
"Suppose I were to write to my government--how would that
do?"
Croppo was evidently puzzled; my cheerful and unembarrassed manner
apparently perplexed him.
I shall be in hiding
with Croppo, where it will be impossible for you to find me, nor while
he lives could I ever dare to think of leaving him; but I shall never
forget you,"--and she pressed my hands to her lips,--"though I shall
no longer have the picture of the donkey to remember you by.
We had been sea-fishing in a small open
boat which he had purchased, and which he managed without assistance;
that is to say, that we had provided ourselves with what was requisite
for the pursuit of that engrossing sport, and that the young count had
gone through the form of dropping his line over the side and pulling
it up, baitless and fishless, from time to time, while I had dispensed
with even this shallow pretence of employment, and had stretched
myself out full length upon the cushions which I had thoughtfully
brought with me, inhaling the salt-laden breeze, and luxuriating in
perfect inaction, till such time as it had become necessary for us to
think of returning homeward.
"Ditto, ditto, to S----, roasted by Croppo's order to make him name an
agent to bring his ransom; overdone by mistake, and died, so got
nothing.
"
"I am tolerably intimate with his Holiness the Pope, and I have a
bowing acquaintance with the King of Naples, whom may God speedily
restore to his own," I replied, in a light and airy fashion, which
seemed exceedingly to exasperate the man called Croppo.
Lady Jane, the daughter of
a wealthy peer, who had almost put things on their old footing with
her ample dowry, was a very great lady, and had been used, I was told,
to an even more splendid home; but to me, who had no mother, she was
simply the kindest and most gracious woman I had ever known.
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