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Page 34
Besides, in the course of the morning the Senator acknowledged that he
got more tunnels than he had any idea he had paid for. They came with a
precipitancy that interfered immensely with any connected idea of the
scenery, though momma, in my interest, did her best to form one. "Note,
my love," she said, as we began to penetrate the frontier country, "that
majestic blue summit on the horizon to the left"--obliteration, and
another tunnel! "_Don't_ miss that jagged line of snows just beyond the
back of poppa's head, dear one. Quick! they are melting away!"--but the
next tunnel was quicker. "Put down that the dazzling purity of these
lovely peaks must be realised, for it cannot be"--darkness, and the
blight of another tunnel. It was very hard on momma's imagination, and
she finally accepted the Senator's warning that it would be thrown
completely out of gear if she went on, and abandoned the attempt to form
complete sentences between tunnels. It was much simpler to exclaim
"Splendid!" or "Glorious!" which one could generally do without being
interrupted.
We were not prepared to enjoy anything when we arrived at Genoa, but
there was Christopher Columbus in bronze, just outside the station in a
little place by himself, and we felt bound to give him our attention
before we went any further. He was patting America on the head, both of
them life size, and carrying on that historical argument with his
sailors in bas-relief below; and he looked a very fine character. As
poppa said, he was just the man you would pick out to discover America.
The Senator also remarked that you could see from the position of the
statue, right there in full view of the travelling public, that the
Genoese thought a lot of Columbus; relied upon him, in fact, as their
biggest attraction. Momma examined him from the carriage. She said it
was most gratifying to see him there in his own home, so to speak; but
her enthusiasm did not induce her to get out. Momma's patriotism has
always to be considered in connection with the state of her nerves.
The state of all our nerves was healed in a quarter of an hour. The
Senator showed his coupons somewhat truculently, but they were received
as things of price with disarming bows and real gladness. We were led
through rambling passages into lofty white chambers, with marble floors
and iron bedsteads, full of simplicity and cleanliness, where we removed
all recollections of Paris without being obliged to consider a stuffy
carpet or satin-covered furniture. Italy, in the persons of the
_portier_ and the chambermaid, laid hold of us with intelligible smiles,
and we were charmed. Inside, the place was full of long free lines and
cool polished surfaces, and pleasant curves. Outside, a thick-fronded
palm swayed in the evening wind against a climbing hill of many-tinted,
many-windowed houses, in all the soft colours we knew of before. When
the _portier_ addressed momma as "Signora" her cup of bliss ran over,
and she made up her mind that she felt able, after all, to go down to
dinner.
Remembering their sentiments, we bowed as slightly as possible when we
saw the Miss Binghams across the table, and the Senator threw that into
his voice, as he inquired how they liked _la belle Italie_ so far, and
whether they had had any trouble with their trunks coming in, which
might have given them to understand that his politeness was very
perfunctory. If they perceived it, they allowed it to influence them the
other way, however. They asked, almost as cordially as if we were
middle-class English people, whether we had actually survived that trip
to Versailles, and forbore to comment when we said we had enjoyed it,
beyond saying that if there was one enviable thing it was the American
capacity for pleasure. Yet one could see quite plainly that the vacuum
caused by the absence of the American capacity for pleasure was filled
in their case by something very superior to it.
"This city new to you?" asked the Senator as the meal progressed.
"In a _sense_, yes," replied Miss Nancy Bingham.
"We've never _studied_ it before," said Miss Cora.
"I suppose it has a fascination all its own," remarked momma.
"Oh, rather!" exclaimed Miss Nancy Bingham, and I reflected that when
she was in England she must have seen a great deal of school-boy
society. I decided at once, noting its effect upon the lips of a
middle-aged maiden lady, that momma must not be allowed to pick up the
expression.
"It's simply full of associations of old families--the Dorias, the
Pallavicinis, the Durazzos," remarked Miss Cora. "Do you gloat on the
medieval?"
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