The Man Who Kept His Money In A Box | Page 5

observed also that the elder
lady always gave her head a toss when she was so addressed.
"We don't mean to enjoy ourselves till we get down to the lake of
Como," said Mr. Greene. As I looked at him cowering over the stove,
and saw how oppressed he was with great coats and warm wrappings
for his throat, I quite agreed with him that he had not begun to enjoy
himself as yet. Then we all got into our places again, and I saw no more
of the Greenes till we were standing huddled together in the large
courtyard of Conradi's hotel at Chiavenna.

Chiavenna is the first Italian town which the tourist reaches by this
route, and I know no town in the North of Italy which is so closely
surrounded by beautiful scenery. The traveller as he falls down to it
from the Splugen road is bewildered by the loveliness of the valleys,-
-that is to say, if he so arranges that he can see them without pressing
his nose against the glass of a coach window. And then from the town
itself there are walks of two, three, and four hours, which I think are
unsurpassed for wild and sometimes startling beauties. One gets into
little valleys, green as emeralds, and surrounded on all sides by grey
broken rocks, in which Italian Rasselases might have lived in perfect
bliss; and then again one comes upon distant views up the river courses,
bounded far away by the spurs of the Alps, which are perfect,--to which
the fancy can add no additional charm. Conradi's hotel also is by no
means bad; or was not in those days. For my part I am inclined to think
that Italian hotels have received a worse name than they deserve; and I
must profess that, looking merely to creature comforts, I would much
sooner stay a week at the Golden Key at Chiavenna, than with mine
host of the King's Head in the thriving commercial town of
Muddleboro, on the borders of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
I am always rather keen about my room in travelling, and having
secured a chamber looking out upon the mountains, had returned to the
court-yard to collect my baggage before Mr. Greene had succeeded in
realising his position, or understanding that he had to take upon himself
the duties of settling his family for the night in the hotel by which he
was surrounded. When I descended he was stripping off the outermost
of three great coats, and four waiters around him were beseeching him
to tell them what accommodation he would require. Mr. Greene was
giving sundry very urgent instructions to the conductor respecting his
boxes; but as these were given in English, I was not surprised to find
that they were not accurately followed. The man, however, was much
too courteous to say in any language that he did not understand every
word that was said to him. Miss Greene was standing apart, doing
nothing. As she was only eighteen years of age, it was of course her
business to do nothing; and a very pretty little girl she was, by no
means ignorant of her own beauty, and possessed of quite sufficient wit
to enable her to make the most of it.
Mr. Greene was very leisurely in his proceedings, and the four waiters

were almost reduced to despair.
"I want two bed-rooms, a dressing-room, and some dinner," he said at
last, speaking very slowly, and in his own vernacular. I could not in the
least assist him by translating it into Italian, for I did not speak a word
of the language myself; but I suggested that the man would understand
French. The waiter, however, had understood English. Waiters do
understand all languages with a facility that is marvellous; and this one
now suggested that Mrs. Greene should follow him up-stairs. Mrs.
Greene, however, would not move till she had seen that her boxes were
all right; and as Mrs. Greene was also a pretty woman, I found myself
bound to apply myself to her assistance.
"Oh, thank you," said she. "The people are so stupid that one can really
do nothing with them. And as for Mr. Greene, he is of no use at all.
You see that box, the smaller one. I have four hundred pounds' worth of
jewellery in that, and therefore I am obliged to look after it."
"Indeed," said I, rather startled at this amount of confidence on rather a
short acquaintance. "In that case I do not wonder at your being careful.
But is it not rather rash, perhaps--"
"I know what you are going to say. Well, perhaps it is rash. But when
you are going to foreign courts, what are you to do? If you have got