Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/371

Rh when she hears voices shouting after her among the hills, and sees people beckoning her back to the inn.

Arrived there, she finds the omnibus gone, within “un quarto d'ora,” as she is assured. But a traveling party, who have a private carriage, wait kindly to take the lost one with them as far as the ferry on La Tosa.

The lady pays at once her bill at the hotel, gives la buona mano to all who desire it, and takes her place, with thanks, in the four-seated open carriage. Here she finds herself opposite an elderly gentleman, evidently an Englishman, who is very much absorbed in the pages of a thick book, and a much younger lady of remarkably lovely and attractive exterior, with lady-like manners; on the back seat sits a young person with the appearance of a lady's maid, and the stranger takes the seat beside her. The lovely lady accepts very graciously her apologies and thanks, and unites warmly with her in astonishment over the behavior of the omnibus. For the rest not many words are exchanged on the road to La Tosa; the gentleman merely remarking, with humorous gravity, as he just glanced up from his book:

“The diligences shall first cross, and if they are drowned, we will not go after them; that's all. We are on the safe side of the affair!” And again be was absorbed in his book.

We now approached La Tosa, and heard its dull roar; and see! Here, upon this side of the river, stand the diligence and omnibus, and all the other carriages waiting, because there is yet a large procession of carriages and carts, which have first to be brought