that he received was favourable. He engaged me by the six months,
and my entertainment was generous.

He was young, handsome, very happy. He was enamoured of a fair
young English lady, with a sufficient fortune, and they were going
to be married. It was the wedding-trip, in short, that we were
going to take. For three months' rest in the hot weather (it was
early summer then) he had hired an old place on the Riviera, at an
easy distance from my city, Genoa, on the road to Nice. Did I know
that place? Yes; I told him I knew it well. It was an old palace
with great gardens. It was a little bare, and it was a little dark
and gloomy, being close surrounded by trees; but it was spacious,
ancient, grand, and on the seashore. He said it had been so
described to him exactly, and he was well pleased that I knew it.
For its being a little bare of furniture, all such places were.
For its being a little gloomy, he had hired it principally for the
gardens, and he and my mistress would pass the summer weather in
their shade.

'So all goes well, Baptista?' said he.

'Indubitably, signore; very well.'

We had a travelling chariot for our journey, newly built for us,
and in all respects complete. All we had was complete; we wanted
for nothing. The marriage took place. They were happy. I was
happy, seeing all so bright, being so well situated, going to my
own city, teaching my language in the rumble to the maid, la bella
Carolina, whose heart was gay with laughter: who was young and
rosy.