Rose in the Bud by Susan Barrie EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Susan Barrie
- Language: English
- Genre: American Literature
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
To begin with it was much more up-to-date and a part of the modern world
than Cathleen could have supposed; but to go on with it was enchanting. The
silent protest she registered had to do with the modernity, and the fact that,
instead of being propelled beneath Venetian arches by a leisurely gondolier
who sang to her while he dipped his pole in and out of the sluggish water,
she was conveyed at some speed by a motor-boat. The enchantment was
everywhere, pouring like golden balm out of a matchless blue heaven,
gilding spires and rooftops and faded palaces and waterways … the
celebrated ‘liquid light’ of Venice.
As Cathleen looked up at the sky and watched it paling before the assault
of sunset she wondered what it would be like when it was dark and the stars
appeared. Would they be enormous, like silver lamps to discover the secrets
of this ancient palatine?
The Grand Canal was a river of light along which she travelled smoothly,
but not in a particularly romantic fashion. She had imagined herself listening
to the lazy slap and murmur of the water as it broke against the sides of the
gondola, and with plenty of time to consider what she would have to say
when she finally arrived in between leaving the train behind and being
decanted at the foot of the steps of the Palazzo de Rini. But at the rate she
was travelling there was not even a lot of opportunity to admire the scenery,
except that the Gothic beauty of the Doge’s palace had impressed her so
much she was by no means certain it was entirely real, and the Bridge of
Sighs was very much as she had always imagined it.
The gondolier appeared to have lost himself in a labyrinth of waterways
that opened off the Grand Canal, and then he was handing her out, and she
was actually standing on the crumbling steps of the Palazzo de Rini, and the
gondolier’s white teeth were flashing in the sunset light as he demanded his
fee.
It was fairly steep, Cathleen thought … a high-priced water-taxi service for
the benefit of tourists. She gave him a tip in addition, and his expansive
smile grew even more expansive. He had judged correctly that this pretty,
well-dressed young woman would not jib at the little extra he considered
was only his due, especially as she was from England. English visitors were
always a little reckless, much more so than some of their American cousins,
who adhered to a parsimonious budget.
“You’re sure this is the right palazzo?” Cathleen glanced up at it in a
certain amount of awe, for despite its peeling, pink-washed facade and a
certain air of decay that hung about it it seemed to her too huge to be an
ordinary dwelling-house. “The Contessa di Rini lived here for years.”
“Si, signorina.” The gondolier knew all about the Contessa di Rini. “But
she dead six months … a year! Family move in.”
“Family?”
“Her nephew, the Conte, and his sister, Signorina Bianca.” The gondolier’s
eyes fairly rolled, and he kissed his hand. “A beauty, that one!”
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