Year: 1874

| c8llJf0I GJjBjtS pJ.Os


HOTEL INCIDENT IN THE RIVIERA.


No one who has sojOurned for while
in the Riviera is surprised at the crowds
| of foreigners that are collected from all
parts of Europe into It's various hooks
and retreats. We English go there to
escape mist and fog; the Russians, to
avoid extreme cold; the invalid Germans
to put barrier between themselves and
| the whitening east wind. Some again
visit it for other than sanitary reasons.
Monsss.1 with its gambling attractions,
enticeS and detains some, and the mere
/ enjoyment of a climate luxurious even
in winter invites many more,


We-that is, my wife and myself
were enjoying a few weeks at one of the
large hotels that are so numerously dot
ted along this coast. 1t might have
been at Hyeres, Cannes, or Nice, at
Monaco or Mentone, BordIghera or San
Reno. SavOna or Pegli; or it might
have been at no one OF all these.


We had been staying-it is sufficient
to say-at the hotel du Bon Nivaut
about a week, when there appeared at
the table d'hOte n very striking person
age. As soon as dinner was over NY
wife found herself (by accident) near the
visitors book. and discovered that the
new arrival had entered himself as the
Baron Monteggiaua-Tayern We
were chiefly English at the hotel, there
was no Italian there, and our acquaint-
ance with the national Burke was limit
ed; so we easily accepted the theory
that this lengthy appellatiOn was one OF
the most ancient titles in the land. We
were subsequently informed by the
Baron that 1t was Sicilian, which made
our ignorance the more eXcusable.


/ don't think it was his title, or, at
least, it was not only that, which made
us all so charmed with him. 1t mast
have been '.his noble bearing, his per-
feet manners, his evident desire to please,
his modest evasion of all topics bearing
on his own career, and his handsome
face. He was apparently about thirty
years of ige, his black hair was as glossy
as a ravens plumage, and his black,
flashing eyes betrayed n passionate soul;
while his thick mustache framed. rather
than concealed, a smile that irradiated
his intellectual countenance with sweet
ness and light"


Such at least was the description given
of him in one of my wife's letters to my
mother-in-law; and | am glad | happen
ed to look into that letter, as it has saved
me some little trouble in attempting TO
describe him in words of my own.


The Baron mixed very little with his
own countrymen, and as | ventured to
suggest to my wife, seemed rather shy
of them He never went to the public
amusements and declined to subscribe
to the Circolo. She explained TO me
in reply that he was the only nobleman
in the place and was perhaps a little
naughty toward his compatriots of
lower rank. He had also informed her
himself that he selected our hotel for
the express purpose of mixing with the
English, as lie was expecting shortly TO
receive a governmental appointment,
and for the better discharge of his pros
pective duties little knowledge of Eng
lish was desirable.


/ should have mentioned before that
| only speak my own language, hut my
wife can converse in Italian with ease
and fluency, and the Baron very natu-
rally talked with her a good deal, and
occasionally condescended to speak TO Inc
by her Interpretation.


Shortly after the arrival of the Baron
Monteggiana- -Tayernelle We were further
enlivened by another. This time it was
a Russian lady, attended by her maid.
There were no other Russians at the
Hotel du Bon Vivant, and she appeared
to have come there rather from necessity
than by choice, as there were no rooms
vacant in the inn usually frequented
81 i 1 -.
enter her name in the visitors book. and
for the first two or three days dined i'll
her own room and held aloof from the
rest of us. This, added to the effect
produced by a stateliness, not to say
grandeur, of department and rich sobri-
ETY. of dress, prepared us all for the dis
covery which in few days ooZed out,
that she was Russian Princess, widow.
who wished to remain incOgnita and tc
live quietly in the enjoyment of an un-
conventional freedom from the obliga-
tions of nobility-an enjoyment beyond
her command at home.


We never fully understood how this
oozed out Her female attendant could
understand nothing, and therefore could
divulge nothing. The maitre d'hotel
assured his guests that he knew NJ more
than the rest of the world, and, by his
mysterious shruggings. his self-contradic
tions, and, above all, by his manner, i'm
pressed us all with the firm belief that
there was a secret in his possession.
This. Of course. confirmed the truth of
the report, and it became an established
fact that the lady was Russian Prin-
cess.


After few DAYS of seclusion she
g. =
the table d'hote. and retired with the
rest of the ladies to the Sale des DANES
afterward Then it WAS that the Baron
exhibited his Unborn as well as inherited
nobility. He attended to her table
wants, placed her in an arm chair by
the fragrant wood fire, and, on receiving
her thanks in his interchangeable
parents pride had no doubt prevented
him from learning any other-he enter
ed into respectful and courtly CONVEX
sation with her There were plenty of
other men in the room vino could have
done it; but the Baron was naturally the
fittest person to begin; and l will give
him credit for boundlesS self-pOssession
not to call it impudence.


The acquaintance thus begun grew
with a tropical rapidity. The cold north
ern temperament softly but quickly thaw
ed beneath the warm raws of Italian
sweetness and light. Fragments of their
talk occasionally reached the ears ofmy
wife and others who could understand
them, from which it appeared that their
main topic was the opera


''Ah, Madame"-he was interpreted to
me as saying-''if could but be honored
with your presence in my box at Flor
ence. The music would be angelic then"


The Signor does me a great favor in
expressing the wish


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 indiscretion, for
wardness, or coquetry in my opinion.


'That woman" said my wife, lis