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Page 9
Mrs. Herriton took the letter indulgently. "What is the
difficulty?" she said after a long pause. "What is it that
puzzles you in this letter?"
"The meaning--" faltered Harriet. The sparrows hopped
nearer and began to eye the peas.
"The meaning is quite clear--Lilia is engaged to be
married. Don't cry, dear; please me by not crying--don't
talk at all. It's more than I could bear. She is going to
marry some one she has met in a hotel. Take the letter and
read for yourself." Suddenly she broke down over what might
seem a small point. "How dare she not tell me direct! How
dare she write first to Yorkshire! Pray, am I to hear
through Mrs. Theobald--a patronizing, insolent letter like
this? Have I no claim at all? Bear witness, dear"--she
choked with passion--"bear witness that for this I'll never
forgive her!"
"Oh, what is to be done?" moaned Harriet. "What is to
be done?"
"This first!" She tore the letter into little pieces
and scattered it over the mould. "Next, a telegram for
Lilia! No! a telegram for Miss Caroline Abbott. She, too,
has something to explain."
"Oh, what is to be done?" repeated Harriet, as she
followed her mother to the house. She was helpless before
such effrontery. What awful thing--what awful person had
come to Lilia? "Some one in the hotel." The letter only
said that. What kind of person? A gentleman? An
Englishman? The letter did not say.
"Wire reason of stay at Monteriano. Strange rumours,"
read Mrs. Herriton, and addressed the telegram to Abbott,
Stella d'Italia, Monteriano, Italy. "If there is an office
there," she added, "we might get an answer this evening.
Since Philip is back at seven, and the eight-fifteen catches
the midnight boat at Dover--Harriet, when you go with this,
get 100 pounds in 5 pound notes at the bank."
"Go, dear, at once; do not talk. I see Irma coming back;
go quickly.... Well, Irma dear, and whose team are you in
this afternoon--Miss Edith's or Miss May's?"
But as soon as she had behaved as usual to her
grand-daughter, she went to the library and took out the
large atlas, for she wanted to know about Monteriano. The
name was in the smallest print, in the midst of a
woolly-brown tangle of hills which were called the
"Sub-Apennines." It was not so very far from Siena, which
she had learnt at school. Past it there wandered a thin
black line, notched at intervals like a saw, and she knew
that this was a railway. But the map left a good deal to
imagination, and she had not got any. She looked up the
place in "Childe Harold," but Byron had not been there. Nor
did Mark Twain visit it in the "Tramp Abroad." The
resources of literature were exhausted: she must wait till
Philip came home. And the thought of Philip made her try
Philip's room, and there she found "Central Italy," by
Baedeker, and opened it for the first time in her life and
read in it as follows:--
MONTERIANO (pop. 4800). Hotels: Stella d'Italia,
moderate only; Globo, dirty. * Caffe Garibaldi. Post and
Telegraph office in Corso Vittorio Emmanuele, next to
theatre. Photographs at Seghena's (cheaper in
Florence). Diligence (1 lira) meets principal trains.
Chief attractions (2-3 hours): Santa Deodata, Palazzo
Pubblico, Sant' Agostino, Santa Caterina, Sant' Ambrogio,
Palazzo Capocchi. Guide (2 lire) unnecessary. A walk
round the Walls should on no account be omitted. The
view from the Rocca (small gratuity) is finest at sunset.
History: Monteriano, the Mons Rianus of Antiquity,
whose Ghibelline tendencies are noted by Dante (Purg.
xx.), definitely emancipated itself from Poggibonsi in
1261. Hence the distich, "POGGIBONIZZI, FAUI IN LA, CHE
MONTERIANO SI FA CITTA!" till recently enscribed over
the Siena gate. It remained independent till 1530, when
it was sacked by the Papal troops and became part of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It is now of small importance,
and seat of the district prison. The inhabitants are
still noted for their agreeable manners.
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