The Corsican Brothers | Page 4

will excuse my traveling dress, I hope, madame."
"Yes, sir," said she, with a smile, "but on condition that on your side you will excuse the rusticity of this reception."
The servant girl went up stairs--I bowed a last time, and followed her.
The room was situated in the first story, and had its windows on the back part of the house, commanding a view of a handsome garden, planted with myrtle trees and laurel roses; a charming rivulet passed through it, carrying its pure water to the Taravo. In the background the view was intercepted by a sort of hedge of fir trees, planted so near to each other as to have the appearance of a wall. Like all the rooms in Italian houses, the partition walls were whitewashed, and ornamented with landscapes painted in fresco.
I understood immediately that this room, which was the one formerly occupied by the now absent son, had been given to me as the most comfortable in the house.
I then took a fancy, while Maria was busily engaged in making the fire, and preparing warm water, to take an inventory of the furniture of my room, thinking it might give me some idea of the character of him who formerly occupied it.
From the project, I proceeded immediately to the execution of my plan, by turning on my left heel, and thus making a circular movement round my own centre, which permitted me to take a view of all the articles by which I was surrounded.
The furniture was quite modern, a circumstance which in this part of the island, where civilization had not yet reached, I considered an evidence of a refined and elegant taste. It consisted of an iron bedstead, provided with three mattresses and a pillow, of a divan, four arm-chairs, six chairs, two book-cases and a writing-desk, all in mahogany, and evidently proceeding from the shop of the first cabinet-maker of Ajaccio.
The divan, the armchairs and chairs, were covered with flower-printed calico, curtains of the same material surrounded the bed and shaded the windows.
I had proceeded thus far with my inventory, when Maria left the room, and thus permitted me to go further in my investigation.
I opened the library, and found there a collection of all our great poets: Corneille, Racine, Molire, Lafontaine, Ronsard, Victor Hugo and Lamartine; our historians, M?zeray, Chateaubriand, A. Thierry; our scientific men, Cuvier, Beudant, Elias de Beaumont; lastly, some volumes of novels, amongst which I discovered, with a certain pride, my Impressions de Voyage.
The keys were left on the drawers of the writing desk; I opened one of them.
It contained some manuscripts, fragments of a history of Corsica, a sketch on the means of abolishing the custom of the vendetta, some French verses, and a few Italian sonnets.
This was all I wanted, and I had the presumption to think that I needed nothing more to form a correct opinion of Mons. Louis de Franchi's character.
I fancied he must of course be a peaceable, studious young man, and an admirer of French improvements and reform.
I then understood his reasons for going to Paris to study the law. There was no doubt a project of civilization in this pursuit.
These reflections I made while I was dressing. My toilette, as I had said to Madame de Franchi, though not lacking the picturesque, required some apology. It consisted of a black velvet jacket, open at the seams of the sleeves, in order to admit the air during the hottest part of the day, and through which crev?s ? l'Espagnole appeared a striped silk shirt; a similar pair of breeches; Spanish spatterdashes covering the leg from the knee down to the foot, open at the side, and embroidered in silk of various colors, and a felt hat completed my toilette, the latter taking almost any form that I might give it, but most particularly that of a sombrero.
I was just putting a finish to this dress, which I recommend to travelers as the most comfortable that I know of, when my door opened, and the same man who had received me appeared. He came to inform me that his young master, Signor Lucien de Franchi, had just arrived, and requested the honor of welcoming me, provided I was visible.
I told him that I was ready to receive Signor Lucien de Franchi, and that all the honor of his visit would be conferred on me.
A moment after, I heard some one rapidly mounting the stairs, and my host immediately made his appearance.



CHAPTER II.
He was, as my guide had told me, a young man, between twenty and twenty-one years of age, with black hair and eyes, rather small, but admirably well made.
In his anxiety to pay his compliments to me, he had come up just as he was, that is in his riding dress, consisting of a