Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/239

Rh morning to proceed, by steamboat, to Montreux, and heard already the signal given for its departure. I had been ordered to be at the office at eight o'clock that morning; it was now half-past eight; and—why would they not give me that which belonged to me?

The young man replied, with great indifference, that “the gentlemen were gone to breakfast: they would be back in time.”

I still waited, standing,—for a seat was not offered me—very tired, and very much astonished at this behavior. Still more distressed than myself was a poor Savoyard, whose knapsack was locked in the same apartment with my portmanteau. He had to return this morning to Savoy, where he had got work; the steamer by which he had to go had given signal of departure, but the knapsack of the poor artisan was locked up, and the gentlemen, who had locked it up, had gone to breakfast. The young man at the desk repeated this information with admirable coolness, and occupied himself by whistling, whilst the poor Savoyard, almost beside himself with uneasiness and anxiety, walked rapidly up and down the office, tore his curling, dark hair, and, with his beautiful Italian eyes full of tears, uttered words of despair. And the gentlemen were still taking breakfast!—

It was now nearly nine o'clock. At the last moment, they came bustling in, drew forth the luggage, and told me what I had to pay before I could obtain possession of mine. It appeared to me unreasonable, and the whole conduct of the gentlemen more than suspicious. But there was now no time to dispute their demands; the steamer was on the point of