The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1874-12-18

or other men in the room who could
have done it but the Baron was nat
urally the fttest person to begin and
l will give him credit for boundless
f-possession-not to call it impu-
dence
The acquaintance thus begun grew
with tropical rapidity. The cold
Northern temperament softly but Quick
ly thawed beneath the warm rays of
italian sweetness and light. Fragments
of their talk occasionally reached the
ears of my wife and others who could
understand them, from which it ap-
peared that their main topic was the
opera.
"Ah, madame"-he was interpreted
to me as saying-"if if I could but be
honored with your presence in my box
at Florence | The music would be an
gelic them
''The signor does me great favor in
expressing the wish. I"
Yes; it was clear that he was hard
hit, and that she knew it, and had no
desire to dismiss him. And yet she
was in no single point guilty of indis-
cretion, forwardness or coquetry, in my
opinion.
That woman" said my wife, T" is
abominable Look how she hunts that
poor man down. / suppose she fancies
Sicily nicer country than Siberia, or
wherever it is she comes from
"Wen, my DEAR" I Ireplied, "it seems
to me that the hunting is mutual. Real
ly, don't see why he shouldn't marry
her, if they both like it. T"
''She may be mere tuft-hunting ad-
venturess, for all we know" said she.
81 don't believe in her."
well, but perhaps he knows more
than we do"
81 don't believe in her bit. She's
hunting him down for his wealth and
title, and is as much a Princess as I
am %
The season was now at its height, and
every room was occupied, the very last
attic in the Hotel du Bon Vivant being
secured by German Count, the Count
Sigismund Won Borokopek. He put
down his name in the visitors book like
a man, and his whole demeanor was
frank, open and robust. He was extraor
dinarily fluent in English, as well as
in French and Italian. German, of
course, was his mother tongue, few
dialectical peouliarities noticeable in his
pronunciation, arising, he explained,
from the circumstance of his being part
ly of Austrian. partly of Hungarian
origin, the Borokopek estates being in
the vicinity of Tokay.
We now numbered about eighty
guests, and began to know one another
pretty we'll; but somehow the Count
knew us all better than we knew one
another before he had been week
among us. He was a big, burly, fair
man, so thoroughly British in appear
ance and in his general characteristics
as to render it difficult, but for his pro-
fciency in other languages, to believe
that he was not Briton born. He had
knocked about the world good deal,
he said. OF the forty years he had
passed in it, twenty had been spent in
travelling, half of which time had been
passed in England, and good deal of
the rest in America. Russia, too, he
was acquainted with and on the
strength of that he introduced himself
to the Princess, and was evidently as
much disposed to admire her as the
Baron himself.
Indeed, before very long, the atten-
tions paid by Count Sigismund Won
lBorokopek to that lady began seriously
Monteggiana Tavernelle and in pro-
portion as their rivalry progressed, SO
id the interest and amusement of the
C, mpany progress with it.
'My dear Charles said my wife,
"isn't she abominabIe aaoaO /? She's
regular firt; and at her age, too 40,
If she's a day. And after entangling
the Baron, to go and egg on the Count.
and all in public too It's bad enough
to make love in public at all, but to do
it to two men, one after the other-I
say she's simply abominable -
Well, but, my dear I expostulat-
ed, "they are both making love to her
at the same time. You see, the Counts
az fo
Sicily is; so perhaps she prefers to be-
come Mrs. Count, ETC., to the other
thing"
Those of us who were not in love with
the Princess began to wish the absurd
affair at an end. The lady was most
unfairly fair to each; for she gave each
of them enough encouragement to make
them savagely jealous of one another,
without going far enough with either
to give the other any grounds of COM
plant. But for her beautiful eyes, /
would compare her to t0bIe0u UiUdnt
of Justice holding the scales. 1 can,
however, safely iken her to Helen; for
she was setting by the ears not only the
two most interested individuals, but
also the whole world about her; and it
wanted but spark to commence con-
fagration, certainly an explosion, be-
tween the two.
We had an American at the Hotel du
Bon Vivant, quiet, thoughtful man,
too much of an invalid to talk much,
and very reserved in his manners We
little thought that the dreaded spark
would be dropped by him; but so it
was.
The Baron was describing to knot
of US, including the Count, as we were
lounging in the entrance hall, after
luncheon, his Syracusan villa, with it's
exquisite gardens. The American was
listening with his usual air of abstrac-
ton, and quietly interposed a question.
" Did understand you to say that the
Villa d'Aostaffn the Strada di Palermo,
belongs to you?"
"Si, signor the Villa d'Aosta you
speak of is the one. 1t is mine. It has
been in my family for several genera
tions."
You've got tenant there now who's
a friend of mine -
"No, signor; no; I do not let my
villa, nor other of my residences"
Well, that's queer, I consider, !"
said the American, 81 came direct