ready
harnessed. I could not talk with the people, and my signs and gestures
were of no use; often just in the midst of a fine dinner the postilion
wound his horn, and I had to drop knife and fork and spring into
the carriage again without knowing whither I was going, or why or
wherefore I was obliged to hurry on at such a rattling pace.

Otherwise the life was not unpleasant. I reclined upon the soft
cushions first in one corner of the carriage and then in the other,
and took note of countries and people, and when we drove through
the villages I leaned both arms on the window of the carriage, and
acknowledged the courtesy of the men who took off their hats to me, or
else I kissed my hand like an old acquaintance to the young girls at
the windows, who looked surprised, and stared after me as long as the
carriage was in sight.

But a day came when I was in a terrible fright. I had never counted
the money in the purse left for me, and I had to pay a great deal to
the postmasters and innkeepers everywhere, so that before I was aware,
the purse was empty. When I first discovered this I had an idea of
jumping out of the carriage and making my escape, the next time we
drove through a lonely wood. But I could not make up my mind to give
up the beautiful carriage and leave it all alone, when, if it were
possible, I would gladly have driven in it to the end of the world.

So I sat buried in thought, not knowing what to do, when all at once
we turned aside from the highway. I shouted to the postilion to ask
him where he was going, but, shout as I would, the fellow never made
any answer save "_Si, si, Signore_!" and on he drove over stock and
stone till I was jolted from side to side in the carriage.

I was not at all pleased, for the high-road ran through a charming
country, directly toward the setting sun, which was bathing the
landscape in a sea of splendor, while before us, when we turned aside,
lay a dreary hilly region, broken by ravines, where in the gray depths
darkness had already set in. The further we drove, the lonelier and
drearier grew the road. At last the moon emerged from the clouds, and
shone through the trees with a weird, unearthly brilliancy. We had
to go very slowly in the narrow rocky ravines, and the continuous,
monotonous rattle of the carriage reechoed from the walls on either
side, as if we were driving through a vaulted tomb. From the depths
of the forest came a ceaseless murmur of unseen water-fal