CHAPTER XV.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1604, 14 October 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XV.

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•irllde and primitive, and that a community which virtually owed its origin to the auri i sacra fames must needs be composed of the most heterogeneous human materials. The most unjointed city o' the earthDiversely populate of alien men. Strangely appropriate *to Melbourne, I thought these quaint old line 3, as I trod the noble streets, wide as two ordinary thoroughCares, and alivo with a busy and motley multitude, moving briskly to and ffryo v in the intense brilliance of the Australian sunlight. The ' Count lived in a quiefc and shady street of one'of the eastern suburbs. Passing through a small gate in a high dead wall, we found ourselves in the courtyard of a small house, built somewhat after tho Spanish fashion, with yine-clad verandahs on the four sides of a square, and a fountain in the centre. The vines were but just coming into leaf; gorgeous-blossomed plants bloomed in the tall white vases that edged the veran-^ dahs; half-a-dozen canaries hung in the* cool shadow within ; and the odour of flowers, the song of birds, and the idle plash of the fountain combined to fill the mind with a pleasant sensation of rest and tranquility. Nor was this impression in any way diminished by the appearance of the girl who came forward to meet us. Tall and largely moulded, Paola Giustiniani carried her almost masculine height with the easy erectness of sound health and perfect proportion. She had her father's well-remembered eye— serenely brilliant, set in a face which, though beautiful after the antique Eoman type, was perhaps too massive and statuesque for modern ideas - of female loveliness. "An old friend of my dear • father's is necessarily a new friend of mine," she^aid, extending to me with frank simplicity her hand — characteristic of the woman in its somewhat large dimensions and strong, wellformed fingers. "Heis in the garden ; let us go to him." Passing through the house, we found the Count pacing to and fro, after his habit of old, with hands clasped behind him and eyes iixed upon the ground. Eaising his head as we approached, he gazed fixedly at me, and muttered in his old abstracted manner : — "I should know that face. Why, -it is Henry Kaymond ! — but changed — Badly changed." " You are but little changed, at any rate, my dear Count," I replied, as I grasped his hand ; and, in truth, but»for the grizzling of his hair and moustache, the four-and-twenty years that had passed since I had last beheld him might have been no more than half-a-dozen. An old straw bonnet, stuck ludicrously upon his head, betokened that his attire was still a matter of perfect indifference to the philosopher, and that he probably owed it to his daughter's care that he was now otherwise clad with that attention to appearances which his fine personal presence deserved. "Where in the name of wonder did you got that thing, padre mio ?" said that young lady, gently removing the bonnet from his head. Her father stared at the article in amazement. "Pcrdonal" he said: "I must have thought it was my garden-hat ! lam unchanged in every way, you see," he added to me, with a smile. " But come inside ; I have much to say to you. These young peOple can amuse each other in the meantime. I know not what to think," he went on — looking back from the door towards the couple we had left behind us. " I am afraid I shall have to interfere between those two !'' " Ah I you object to Walter on his father's account, I suppose. You did not get on well with the latter, I understand." " No. You know that lam the last person in the world to take offence at the sayings or doings of ignorant prejudice, and the remark which Walter's father made, in my hearing, about ' treacherous Italians', would only have Xirovoked a smile, had it not been made with the deliberate intention of insulting me. Of course under those circumstances it was impossible to continue his acquaintance. The son is a fine young fellow, and one of nature's gentlemen ; but that does not counterbalance with me the fact of his being the son of a boor. No — he must think no more of Paola 1" "I do not think his father is a boor by extraction," I replied — " whatever he may be in manners. But I should not have expected class distinctions to weigh so much with you ! I know, of course, that your family is an ancient and distinguished one, but I should have thought a man of your breadth of view would not attach much importance to tho fact." " Then you mistake me much, my friend," returned the Count. "It is precisely my breadth of view, as you are pleased to call it, which teaches me the desirability of a moderate observance of distinctions in rank, and that, within reasonable limits, pride of order is a useful and wholesome feeling. And, besides" — "The Eeverend Father Ormonde I" announced a servant at this moment.