Letters of a Spinster, Letters XXII-XXIII [pp. 295-306]

Letters of a Spinster.
the Alp and Appenine,
The Pyrenean and the river Po.
After pursuing our journey in this direc tion for some time longer, we left the Na tional road at a station called Veramionte,
and taking a carriage, which we found in
waiting for us, drove over a smooth but
rather steep road to the termination of
our journey-the residence of the gentle man who accompanied me from the city and bearing the plain Scotch name of
Dunbarton, given at a general council of
his family, in reference to a huge double rock which overtops the woods behind it.
Here I met with a cordial greeting from
all the househAId, and after a light sup per went to bed with that most delicious
of all feelings-the expectation of sound
and refreshing slumbers in the night, and
new scenes, new faces, and new friends
in the morning.
On awaking I was conscious that the
day had already broke-that a bright lit tle fire was burning on the hearth, and that
the Promethean who had kindled it-a
little bronzed damsel of twelve years old
was in the act of making her escape.
She returned, on seeing that I was awake,
and offered her ministrations. It was
still more than an hour to breakfast, and
my toilet is ever of the simplest, so I dis missed the little servant and ventured on
a waking dream. You know there is a
kind of witchery in being the favoured
guest of people whom you esteem or love
at second hand-friends of your friends,
to whom you are as yet unknown. To
be conscious that Master William, the
youngest boy, and Miss Betty, his sister,
have been admonished that they must
walk on tip-toe past the door of your bed
chamber: that every one will smile on
you affectionately when you make your
appearance in the sitting room: that you
will have a seat next the host or hostess,
as the case may be; and that your features will be quietly scrutinized by the
young ladies, while their heads are bent
over their coffee; and that any little arguments which you may venture to display, will be noticed silently, but with
great attention. Ah, me, it is difficult to
be unconscious and unaffected under such
VOL. XXX.-20
circumstances; but the sensation among
good people is fiar frombeing unpleasant.
My day dream was composed of fancies
such as this, interwoven with an inven tory of the furniture of the apartment in
which I lay. The room was of ample
size, and all its appointments of that sub stantial and tasteful order which is com fortable, because it speaks of compe tence, economy and good house-keeping.
I had just fairly reconciled myself to
the numnber of the windows, the exect
places of the door and fire-place, and was
beginning to take the curtains into my
inventory-they were light pink, with
blue borders-when I became aware that
the rosy portion of these last decorations
were becoming glossy and lustrous in the
beams of the morning sun, and I at once
left the dreamy for the true world; arose-dressed myself, and removing the
nearest hangings, began to look abroad.
The window at which I stood overlooked
a wide stretch of low or interval country,
above which a light white mist was then
lying, and through it, as through an
ocean, there peered out here and there,
like islands, the wooded tops of those ir regular and wave-like hills of which I
have already spoken. Through this veil
I could also see more than one spire with
its cross and ball glittering in the sun or a darker tree-top with its bare but bud ding limbs, showed like an anchored
ship on the aerial and quiet sea. As an
audible accompaniment to this morning
pageant, I could hear from a distance the
challenges of chanticleer, the soft lowing
of cattle, and that scarce audible hum
which seems the natural language of nature, though made up of so many sounds
as to escape from all analysis. Nearer
to me, on the Northern side, there arose
a steep and rocky promontory, covered
with verdure; and I could hear the fitful
brawling of a brook or mountain torrent,
which I fancied must be running at its
foot. While thus like an ancient Gheber
worshipping the sun, the summons came
for breakfast, and I descended.
Do not entertain any vague fear that I
am going to become personal and rehearse
a scene of coffee and conversation, with
name, dress, and'my dear' in it-like a
1860.]
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