Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/302

318 the reason why it maintains its hold. It is, at the present time, carrying out great works in the city, which find employment for a great number of persons, and will, in the end, essentially alter many portions of it.

“It provokes me,” said an honest old Genevese to me, “but—I cannot bear to think, after all, that it will be—for the best interests of the city!”

If this spirit of improvement will but leave untouched the old Rhone island, with its picturesque buildings and memories from the time of Julius Cæsar! It presents a remarkable contrast with the adjacent, well-built, new quarter of the city.

Geneva is at the present time, together with Basle, the wealthiest city of the confederation. Millionaires are reckoned there by hundreds. I have, however, heard say that that the millionaires of Basle have ten times more millions than the millionaires of Geneva.

On the fourth of May the sun again acquired his power; the air became delicious, and I removed from my good home upon the heights in Geneva, to a country parsonage in the neighborhood, beside the “living waters,” at Jargonaut.

, from May 6th to June.—It was evening when I arrived here. A young girl, whose lovely eyes beamed with heartfelt kindness, silently conducted me to my room. I heard the plash of a fountain; the nightingale was pouring forth his clear, abruptly-varying song in the groves; the fragrant lilacs waving their leafy branches outside