The Man Who Kept His Money In A Box | Page 7

points, and did not seem to understand that a
young man might prefer the conversation of his daughter to his own.
Not that he showed any solicitude to prevent conversation on the part
of his daughter. I should have been perfectly at liberty to talk to either
of the ladies had he not wished to engross all my attention to himself.
He also had found it dull to be alone with his wife and daughter for the
last six weeks.
He was a small spare man, probably over fifty years of age, who gave
me to understand that he had lived in London all his life, and had made
his own fortune in the city. What he had done in the city to make his
fortune he did not say. Had I come across him there I should no doubt
have found him to be a sharp man of business, quite competent to teach
me many a useful lesson of which I was as ignorant as an infant. Had
he caught me on the Exchange, or at Lloyd's, or in the big room of the
Bank of England, I should have been compelled to ask him everything.
Now, in this little town under the Alps, he was as much lost as I should
have been in Lombard Street, and was ready enough to look to me for
information. I was by no means chary in giving him my counsel, and
imparting to him my ideas on things in general in that part of the
world;--only I should have preferred to be allowed to make myself civil
to his daughter.
In the course of conversation it was mentioned by him that they
intended to stay a few days at Bellaggio, which, as all the world knows,

is a central spot on the lake of Como, and a favourite resting- place for
travellers. There are three lakes which all meet here, and to all of which
we give the name of Como. They are properly called the lakes of Como,
Colico, and Lecco; and Bellaggio is the spot at which their waters join
each other. I had half made up my mind to sleep there one night on my
road into Italy, and now, on hearing their purpose, I declared that such
was my intention.
"How very pleasant," said Mrs. Greene. "It will be quite delightful to
have some one to show us how to settle ourselves, for really--"
"My dear, I'm sure you can't say that you ever have much trouble."
"And who does then, Mr. Greene? I am sure Sophonisba does not do
much to help me."
"You won't let me," said Sophonisba, whose name I had not before
heard. Her papa had called her Sophy in the yard of the inn. Sophonisba
Greene! Sophonisba Robinson did not sound so badly in my ears, and I
confess that I had tried the names together. Her papa had mentioned to
me that he had no other child, and had mentioned also that he had made
his fortune.
And then there was a little family contest as to the amount of travelling
labour which fell to the lot of each of the party, during which I retired
to one of the windows of the big front room in which we were sitting.
And how much of this labour there is incidental to a tourist's pursuits!
And how often these little contests do arise upon a journey! Who has
ever travelled and not known them? I had taken up such a position at
the window as might, I thought, have removed me out of hearing; but
nevertheless from time to time a word would catch my ear about that
precious box. "I have never taken MY eyes off it since I left England,"
said Mrs. Greene, speaking quick, and with a considerable brogue
superinduced by her energy. "Where would it have been at Basle if I
had not been looking after it?" "Quite safe," said Sophonisba; "those
large things always are safe." "Are they, Miss? That's all you know
about it. I suppose your bonnet-box was quite safe when I found it on
the platform at--at--I forget the name of the place?"
"Freidrichshafen," said Sophonisba, with almost an unnecessary
amount of Teutonic skill in her pronunciation. "Well, mamma, you
have told me of that at least twenty times." Soon after that, the ladies
took them to their own rooms, weary with the travelling of two days

and a night, and Mr. Greene went fast asleep in the very comfortless
chair in which he was seated.
At four o'clock on the next morning we started on our journey.
"Early to bed, and early to rise, Is the way to be healthy, and wealthy,
and wise."
We all know that lesson, and many of us believe in