Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 2.djvu/33

COLOMBA 13 Then, addressing Miss Nevil: " Mattei tells me you have just come back from Italy. No doubt, mademoiselle, you speak the purest Tuscan — I fear you'll find it somewhat difficult to understand our dialect." " My daughter understands every Italian dialect," said the colonel. " She has the gift of languages. She doesn't get it from me." " Would mademoiselle understand, for in- stance, these lines from one of our Corsican songs in which a shepherd says to his shep- herdess : " S'entrassi 'ndru paradisu santu, santu, E nun truvassi a tia, mi n'esciria." * Miss Lydia did understand. She thought the quotation bold, and the look which accom- panied it still bolder, and rephed, with a blush, " Capisco." " And are you going back to your own coun- try on furlough? " inquired the colonel. " No, colonel, they have put me on half pay, because I was at Waterloo, probably, and be- cause I am Napoleon's feUow-coimtryman. I am going home, as the song says, low in hope would depart ! " — Serenata <M Zicavo.
 * *' If I entered the holy land of paradise and found thee not, I