"mnkmb10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Trollope Anthony)

French, and was quite at home, as she assured me, in German. And then
the boat was beached on the shore at Bellaggio, and we all had to go
again to work with the object of getting ourselves lodged at the hotel
which overlooks the water.

I had learned before that the Greenes were quite free from any trouble
in this respect, for their rooms had been taken for them before they
left England. Trusting to this, Mrs. Greene gave herself no
inconsiderable airs the moment her foot was on the shore, and ordered
the people about as though she were the Lady Paramount of Bellaggio.
Italians, however, are used to this from travellers of a certain
description. They never resent such conduct, but simply put it down
in the bill with the other articles. Mrs. Greene's words on this
occasion were innocent enough, seeing that they were English; but had
I been that head waiter who came down to the beach with his nice black
shiny hair, and his napkin under his arm, I should have thought her
manner very insolent.

Indeed, as it was, I did think so, and was inclined to be angry with
her. She was to remain for some time at Bellaggio, and therefore it
behoved her, as she thought, to assume the character of the grand lady
at once. Hitherto she had been willing enough to do the work, but now
she began to order about Mr. Greene and Sophonisba; and, as it
appeared to me, to order me about also. I did not quite enjoy this;
so leaving her still among her luggage and satellites, I walked up to
the hotel to see about my own bed-room. I had some seltzer water,
stood at the window for three or four minutes, and then walked up and
down the room. But still the Greenes were not there. As I had put in
at Bellaggio solely with the object of seeing something more of
Sophonisba, it would not do for me to quarrel with them, or to allow
them so to settle themselves in their private sitting-room, that I
should be excluded. Therefore I returned again to the road by which
they must come up, and met the procession near the house.

Mrs. Greene was leading it with great majesty, the waiter with the
shiny hair walking by her side to point out to her the way. Then came
all the luggage,--each porter carrying a white canvas-covered box.
That which was so valuable no doubt was carried next to Mrs. Greene,
so that she might at a moment's notice put her eye upon the well-known
valuable rent. I confess that I did not observe the hole as the train
passed by me, nor did I count the number of the boxes. Seven boxes,
all alike, are very many; and then they were followed by three other
men with the inferior articles,--Mr. Greene's portmanteau, the
carpetbag, &e., &c. At the tail of the line, I found Mr. Greene, and
behind him Sophonisba. "All your fatigues will be over now," I said
to the gentleman, thinking it well not to be too particular in my
attentions to his daughter. He was panting beneath a terrible great-
coat, having forgotten that the shores of an Italian lake are not so
cold as the summits of the Alps, and did not answer me. "I'm sure I
hope so," said Sophonisba. "And I shall advise papa not to go any