Page:The Atlantic Monthly Volume 1.djvu/793

1858.] Amours de Voyage. 785

And the long lawful line of crowned joys to crowned joys succeeding.— A h, it has ebbed with me! Ye gods, and when it was flowing, Pitiful fool that I was, to stand fiddle-faddling in that way!

{{c|IV.—Claude To Eustace,—from Bellagio.

I have returned and found their names in the book at Como. Certain it is I was right, and yet I am also in error.— Added in feminine hand, I read, Be the boat to Bellaggio.— So to Bellaggio again, with the words of her writing, to aid me. Yet at Bellaggio I find no trace, no sort of remembrance. So I am here, and wait, and now every hour will remove them.

V.—CLAUDE TO EUSTACE,—from Bellaggio. I HAVE but one chance left,—and that is, going to Florence. But it is cruel to turn. The mountains seem to demand me,— Peak and valley from far to beckon and motion me onward. Somewhere amid their folding passes, whom fain I would follow; Somewhere among these heights she haply calls me, I seek her. Ah, could I hear her call! could I catch the glimpse of her raiment! Turn, however, I must, though it seem I turn to desert her; For the sense of the thing is simply to hurry to Florence, Where the certainty yet may be learnt, I suppose, from the Ropers

VI.—MARY TREVELLYN, from Lucerne, to MISS ROPER, at Florence.

DEAR MISS ROPER,—By this you are safely away, we are hoping, Many a league from Rome; ere long we trust we shall see you. How then am I travelling? I wonder,—was Mr. Claude your companion? As for ourselves, we went from Como straight to Lugano, So by the Mount St. Gothard;—we meant to go by Torlezza, Taking the steamer, and stopping, as you had advised, at Bellaggio, Two or three days or more; but this was suddenly altered, After we left the hotel, on the way to the steamer. So we have seen, I fear, not one of the lakes in perfection. Well, he is not come; and now, I suppose, he will not come. What will you think, meantime?—and yet I must really confess it:— What will you say? I wrote him a note. We left in a hurry, Went from Milan to Como three days before we left in a hurry, But I thought, if he came all the way to Milan, he really Ought not to be disappointed; and so I wrote three lines to Say I had heard he was coming, desirous of joining our party;— If so, then I said, we had started for Como, and meant to Cross the St. Gothard, and stay, we believed, at Lucerne, for the summer. Was it wrong? and why, if it was, has it failed to bring him? And to not think it worth while to come to Milan? He knew, (you Told him) the house we would go to. Or may it, perhaps, have miscarried? Any way, now, I repent, and am heartily vexed that I wrote it