CHAPTER VI.
ACROSS THE CHANNEL.
Dawn had given place to day, and day was well advanced toward noon,before the stout little steamer gained her port. It was hours afterthe usual time for arrival; the train for Paris must long since havestarted, and Katy felt dejected and forlorn as, making her way out ofthe terrible ladies'-cabin, she crept on deck for her first glimpseof France.
The sun was struggling through the fog with a watery smile, and hisfaint beams shone on a confusion of stone piers, higher than thevessel's deck, intersected with canal-like waterways, through whoseintricate windings the steamer was slowly threading her course to thelanding-place. Looking up, Katy could see crowds of people assembled towatch the boat come in,--workmen, peasants, women, children, soldiers,custom-house officers, moving to and fro,--and all this crowd weretalking all at once and all were talking French!
I don't know why this should have startled her as it did. She knew, ofcourse, that people of different countries were liable to be foundspeaking their own languages; but somehow the spectacle of thechattering multitude, all seeming so perfectly at ease with theirpreterits and subjunctives and never once having to refer to Ollendorfor a dictionary, filled her with a sense of dismayed surprise.
"Good gracious!" she said to herself, "even the babies understand it!"She racked her brains to recall what she had once known of French, butvery little seemed to have survived the horrors of the night!
"Oh dear! what is the word for trunk-key?" she asked herself. "They willall begin to ask questions, and I shall not have a word to say; and Mrs.Ashe will be even worse off, I know." She saw the red-trouseredcustom-house officers pounce upon the passengers as they landed one byone, and she felt her heart sink within her.
But after all, when the time came it did not prove so very bad. Katy'spleasant looks and courteous manner stood her in good stead. She did nottrust herself to say much; but the officials seemed to understandwithout saying. They bowed and gestured, whisked the keys in and out,and in a surprisingly short time all was pronounced right, the baggagehad "passed," and it and its owners were free to proceed to therailway-station, which fortunately was close at hand.
Inquiry revealed the fact that no train for Paris left till four in theafternoon.
"I am rather glad," declared poor Mrs. Ashe, "for I feel too used up tomove. I will lie here on this sofa; and, Katy dear, please see if thereis an eating-place, and get some breakfast for yourself and Amy, andsend me a cup of tea."
"I don't like to leave you alone," Katy was beginning; but at thatmoment a nice old woman who seemed to be in charge of the waiting-roomappeared, and with a flood of French which none of them could follow,but which was evidently sympathetic in its nature, flew at Mrs. Ashe andbegan to make her comfortable. From a cupboard in the wall she produceda pillow, from another cupboard a blanket; in a trice she had one underMrs. Ashe's head and the other wrapped round her feet.
"Pauvre madame," she said, "si pale! si souffrante! Il faut avoirquelque chose a boire et a manger tout de suite." She trotted across theroom and into the restaurant which opened out of it, while Mrs. Ashesmiled at Katy and said, "You see you can leave me quite safely; I am tobe taken care of." And Katy and Amy passed through the same door intothe _buffet_, and sat down at a little table.
It was a particularly pleasant-looking place to breakfast in. There weremany windows with bright polished panes and very clean short muslincurtains, and on the window-sills stood rows of thrifty potted plants infull bloom,--marigolds, balsams, nasturtiums, and many coloredgeraniums. Two birds in cages were singing loudly; the floor was waxedto a glass-like polish; nothing could have been whiter than the marbleof the tables except the napkins laid over them. And such a goodbreakfast as was presently brought to them,--delicious coffee inbowl-like cups, crisp rolls and rusks, an omelette with a delicateflavor of fine herbs, stewed chicken, little pats of freshly churnedbutter without salt, shaped like shells and tasting like solidifiedcream, and a pot of some sort of nice preserve. Amy made great delightedeyes at Katy, and remarking, "I think France is heaps nicer than thatold England," began to eat with a will; and Katy herself felt that ifthis railroad meal was a specimen of what they had to expect in thefuture, they had indeed come to a land of plenty.
Fortified with the satisfactory breakfast, she felt equal to a walk; andafter they had made sure that Mrs. Ashe had all she needed, she and Amy(and Mabel) set off by themselves to see the sights of Dieppe. I don'tknow that travellers generally have considered Dieppe an interestingplace, but Katy found it so. There was a really old church and somequaint buildings of the style of two centuries back, and even the moremodern streets had a novel look to her unaccustomed eyes. At first theyonly ventured a timid turn or two, marking each corner, and going backnow and then to reassure themselves by a look at the station; but aftera while, growing bolder, Katy ventured to ask a question or two inFrench, and was surprised and charmed to find herself understood. Afterthat she grew adventurous, and, no longer fearful of being lost, led Amystraight down a long street lined with shops, almost all of which werefor the sale of articles in ivory.
Ivory wares are one of the chief industries of Dieppe. There were casesfull, windows full, counters full, of the most exquisite combs andbrushes, some with elaborate monograms in silver and colors, othersplain; there were boxes and caskets of every size and shape, ornaments,fans, parasol handles, looking-glasses, frames for pictures large andsmall, napkin-rings.
Katy was particularly smitten with a paper-knife in the form of an angelwith long slender wings raised over its head and meeting to form apoint. Its price was twenty francs, and she was strongly tempted to buyit for Clover or Rose Red. But she said to herself sensibly, "This isthe first shop I have been into and the first thing I have really wantedto buy, and very likely as we go on I shall see things I like better andwant more, so it would be foolish to do it. No, I won't." And sheresolutely turned her back on the ivory angel, and walked away.
The next turn brought them to a gay-looking little market-place, whereold women in white caps were sitting on the ground beside baskets andpanniers full of apples, pears, and various queer and curly vegetables,none of which Katy recognized as familiar; fish of all shapes and colorswere flapping in shallow tubs of sea-water; there were piles ofstockings, muffetees, and comforters in vivid blue and red worsted, andcoarse pottery glazed in bright patterns. The faces of the women werebrown and wrinkled; there were no pretty ones among them, but theirblack eyes were full of life and quickness, and their fingers one andall clicked with knitting-needles, as their tongues flew equally fast inthe chatter and the chaffer, which went on without stop or stay, thoughcustomers did not seem to be many and sales were few.
Returning to the station they found that Mrs. Ashe had been asleepduring their absence, and seemed so much better that it was with greatlyamended spirits that they took their places in the late afternoon trainwhich was to set them down at Rouen. Katy said they were like the WiseMen of the East, "following a star," in their choice of a hotel; for,having no better advice, they had decided upon one of those thusdistinguished in Baedeker's Guide-book.
The star did not betray their confidence; for the Hotel de la Cloche, towhich it led them, proved to be quaint and old, and very pleasant ofaspect. The lofty chambers, with their dimly frescoed ceilings, and bedscurtained with faded patch, might to all appearances have been furnishedabout the time when "Columbus crossed the ocean blue;" but everythingwas clean, and had an air of old-time respectability. The dining-room,which was evidently of more modern build, opened into a square courtyardwhere oleanders and lemon trees in boxes stood round the basin of alittle fountain, whose tinkle and plash blended agreeably with therattle of the knives and forks. In one corner of the room was a raisedand railed platform, where behind a desk sat the mistress of the house,busy with her account-books, but keeping an eye the while on all thatwent forward.
Mrs. Ashe walked past this personage without taking any notice of her,as Americans are wont to do un
der such circumstances; but presently theobservant Katy noticed that every one else, as they went in or out ofthe room, addressed a bow or a civil remark to this lady. She quiteblushed at the recollection afterward, as she made ready for bed.
"How rude we must have seemed!" she thought. "I am afraid the peoplehere think that Americans have _awful_ manners, everybody is so polite.They said 'Bon soir' and 'Merci' and 'Voulez-vous avoir la bonte,' tothe waiters even! Well, there is one thing,--I am going to reform.To-morrow I will be as polite as anybody. They will think that I ammiraculously improved by one night on French soil; but, never mind! I amgoing to do it."
She kept her resolution, and astonished Mrs. Ashe next morning, bybowing to the dame on the platform in the most winning manner, andsaying, "Bon jour, madame," as they went by.
"But, Katy, who is that person? Why do you speak to her?"
"Don't you see that they all do? She is the landlady, I think; at allevents, everybody bows to her. And just notice how prettily these ladiesat the next table speak to the waiter. They do not order him to dothings as we do at home. I noticed it last night, and I liked it so muchthat I made a resolution to get up and be as polite as the Frenchthemselves this morning."
So all the time that they went about the sumptuous old city, rich incarvings and sculptures and traditions, while they were looking at theCathedral and the wonderful church of St. Ouen, and the Palace ofJustice, and the "Place of the Maid," where poor Jeanne d'Arc was burnedand her ashes scattered to the winds, Katy remembered her manners, andsmiled and bowed, and used courteous prefixes in a soft pleasant voice;and as Mrs. Ashe and Amy fell in with her example more or less, I thinkthe guides and coachmen and the old women who showed them over thebuildings felt that the air of France was very civilizing indeed, andthat these strangers from savage countries over the sea were in a fairway to be as well bred as if they had been born in a more favored partof the world!
Paris looked very modern after the peculiar quaint richness and air ofthe Middle Ages which distinguish Rouen. Rooms had been engaged forMrs. Ashe's party in a _pension_ near the Arc d'Etoile, and there theydrove immediately on arriving. The rooms were not in the _pension_itself, but in a house close by,--a sitting-room with six mirrors,three clocks, and a pinched little grate about a foot wide, adining-room just large enough for a table and four chairs, and twobedrooms. A maid called Amandine had been detailed to take charge ofthese rooms and serve their meals.
Dampness, as Katy afterward wrote to Clover, was the first impressionthey received of "gay Paris." The tiny fire in the tiny grate had onlyjust been lighted, and the walls and the sheets and even the blanketsfelt chilly and moist to the touch. They spent their first evening inhanging the bedclothes round the grate and piling on fuel; they even setthe mattresses up on edge to warm and dry! It was not very enlivening,it must be confessed. Amy had taken a cold, Mrs. Ashe looked worried,and Katy thought of Burnet and the safety and comfort of home with athrob of longing.
The days that ensued were not brilliant enough to remove thisimpression. The November fogs seemed to have followed them across theChannel, and Paris remained enveloped in a wet blanket which dimmed andhid its usually brilliant features. Going about in cabs with the windowsdrawn up, and now and then making a rush through the drip into shops,was not exactly delightful, but it seemed pretty much all that theycould do. It was worse for Amy, whose cold kept her indoors and deniedher even the relaxation of the cab. Mrs. Ashe had engaged awell-recommended elderly English maid to come every morning and takecare of Amy while they were out; and with this respectable functionary,whose ideas were of a rigidly British type and who did not speak a wordof any language but her own, poor Amy was compelled to spend most of hertime. Her only consolation was in persuading this serene attendant totake a part in the French lessons which she made a daily point of givingto Mabel out of her own little phrase-book.
"Wilkins is getting on, I think," she told Katy one night. "She says'Biscuit glace' quite nicely now. But I never will let her look at thebook, though she always wants to; for if once she saw how the words arespelled, she would never in the world pronounce them right again. Theylook so very different, you know."
Katy looked at Amy's pale little face and eager eyes with a realheartache. Her rapture when at the end of the long dull afternoons hermother returned to her was touching. Paris was very _triste_ to poorAmy, with all her happy facility for amusing herself; and Katy felt thatthe sooner they got away from it the better it would be. So, in spite ofthe delight which her brief glimpses at the Louvre gave her, and the funit was to go about with Mrs. Ashe and see her buy pretty things, and thereal satisfaction she took in the one perfectly made walking-suit towhich she had treated herself, she was glad when the final day came,when the belated dressmakers and artistes in jackets and wraps had senthome their last wares, and the trunks were packed. It had been ratherthe fault of circumstances than of Paris; but Katy had not learned tolove the beautiful capital as most Americans do, and did not feel at allas if she wanted that her "reward of virtue" should be to go there whenshe died! There must be more interesting places for live people, andghosts too, to be found on the map of Europe, she was sure.
Next morning as they drove slowly down the Champs Elysees, andlooked back for a last glimpse of the famous Arch, a bright objectmet their eyes, moving vaguely against the mist. It was the gay redwagon of the Bon Marche, carrying bundles home to the dwellers ofsome up-town street.
Katy burst out laughing. "It is an emblem of Paris," she said,--"of ourParis, I mean. It has been all Bon Marche and fog!"
"Miss Katy," interrupted Amy, "_do_ you like Europe? For my part, I wasnever so disgusted with any place in my life!"
"Poor little bird, her views of 'Europe' are rather dark just now, andno wonder," said her mother. "Never mind, darling, you shall havesomething pleasanter by and by if I can find it for you."
"Burnet is a great deal pleasanter than Paris," pronounced Amy,decidedly. "It doesn't keep always raining there, and I can take walks,and I understand everything that people say."
All that day they sped southward, and with every hour came a change inthe aspect of their surroundings. Now they made brief stops in largebusy towns which seemed humming with industry. Now they whirled throughgrape countries with miles of vineyards, where the brown leaves stillhung on the vines. Then again came glimpses of old Roman ruins,amphitheatres, viaducts, fragments of wall or arch; or a sudden chillbetokened their approach to mountains, where snowy peaks could be seenon the far horizon. And when the long night ended and day roused themfrom broken slumbers, behold, the world was made over! Autumn hadvanished, and the summer, which they thought fled for good, had takenhis place. Green woods waved about them, fresh leaves were blowing inthe wind, roses and hollyhocks beckoned from white-walled gardens; andbefore they had done with exclaiming and rejoicing, the Mediterraneanshot into view, intensely blue, with white fringes of foam, white sailsblowing across, white gulls flying above it, and over all a sky of thesame exquisite blue, whose clouds were white as the drifting sails onthe water below, and they were at Marseilles.
It was like a glimpse of Paradise to eyes fresh from autumnal grays andglooms, as they sped along the lovely coast, every curve and turnshowing new combinations of sea and shore, olive-crowned cliff andshining mountain-peak. With every mile the blue became bluer, the windsofter, the feathery verdure more dense and summer-like. Hyeres andCannes and Antibes were passed, and then, as they rounded a long point,came the view of a sunshiny city lying on a sunlit shore; the trainslackened its speed, and they knew that their journey's end was come andthey were in Nice.
The place seemed to laugh with gayety as they drove down the Promenadedes Anglais and past the English garden, where the band was playingbeneath the acacias and palm-trees. On one side was a line ofbright-windowed hotels and _pensions_, with balconies and stripedawnings; on the other, the long reach of yellow sand-beach, where ladieswere grouped on shawls and rugs, and children ran up and down in thesun, while beyond stret
ched the waveless sea. The December sun felt aswarm as on a late June day at home, and had the same soft caressingtouch. The pavements were thronged with groups of leisurely-lookingpeople, all wearing an unmistakable holiday aspect; pretty girls incorrect Parisian costumes walked demurely beside their mothers, withcavaliers in attendance; and among these young men appeared now andagain the well-known uniform of the United States Navy.
"I wonder," said Mrs. Ashe, struck by a sudden thought, "if by anychance our squadron is here." She asked the question the moment theyentered the hotel; and the porter, who prided himself on understanding"zose Eenglesh," replied,--
"Mais oui, Madame, ze Americaine fleet it is here; zat is, not here,but at Villefranche, just a leetle four mile away,--it is ze samezing exactly."
"Katy, do you hear that?" cried Mrs. Ashe. "The frigates _are_ here, andthe 'Natchitoches' among them of course; and we shall have Ned to goabout with us everywhere. It is a real piece of good luck for us. Ladiesare at such a loss in a place like this with nobody to escort them. I amperfectly delighted."
"So am I," said Katy. "I never saw a frigate, and I always wanted to seeone. Do you suppose they will let us go on board of them?"
"Why, of course they will." Then to the porter, "Give me a sheetof paper and an envelope, please.--I must let Ned know that I amhere at once."
Mrs. Ashe wrote her note and despatched it before they went upstairs totake off their bonnets. She seemed to have a half-hope that some bird ofthe air might carry the news of her arrival to her brother, for she keptrunning to the window as if in expectation of seeing him. She was toorestless to lie down or sleep, and after she and Katy had lunched,proposed that they should go out on the beach for a while.
"Perhaps we may come across Ned," she remarked.
They did not come across Ned, but there was no lack of otherdelightful objects to engage their attention. The sands were smoothand hard as a floor. Soft pink lights were beginning to tinge thewestern sky. To the north shone the peaks of the maritime Alps, andthe same rosy glow caught them here and there, and warmed their graysand whites into color.
"I wonder what that can be?" said Katy, indicating the rocky point whichbounded the beach to the east, where stood a picturesque building ofstone, with massive towers and steep pitches of roof. "It looks halflike a house and half like a castle, but it is quite fascinating, Ithink. Do you suppose that people live there?"
"We might ask," suggested Mrs. Ashe.
Just then they came to a shallow river spanned by a bridge, beside whosepebbly bed stood a number of women who seemed to be washing clothes bythe simple and primitive process of laying them in the water on top ofthe stones, and pounding them with a flat wooden paddle till they werewhite. Katy privately thought that the clothes stood a poor chance oflasting through these cleansing operations; but she did not say so, andmade the inquiry which Mrs. Ashe had suggested, in her best French.
"Celle-la?" answered the old woman whom she had addressed. "Mais c'estla Pension Suisse."
"A _pension_; why, that means a boarding-house," cried Katy. "What funit must be to board there!"
"Well, why shouldn't we board there!" said her friend. "You know wemeant to look for rooms as soon as we were rested and had found out alittle about the place. Let us walk on and see what the Pension Suisseis like. If the inside is as pleasant as the outside, we could not dobetter, I should think."
"Oh, I do hope all the rooms are not already taken," said Katy, who hadfallen in love at first sight with the Pension Suisse. She felt quiteoppressed with anxiety as they rang the bell.
The Pension Suisse proved to be quite as charming inside as out. Thethick stone walls made deep sills and embrasures for the casementwindows, which were furnished with red cushions to serve as seats andlounging-places. Every window seemed to command a view, for those whichdid not look toward the sea looked toward the mountains. The house wasby no means full, either. Several sets of rooms were to be had; and Katyfelt as if she had walked straight into the pages of a romance When Mrs.Ashe engaged for a month a delightful suite of three, a sitting-room andtwo sleeping-chambers, in a round tower, with a balcony overhanging thewater, and a side window, from which a flight of steps led down into alittle walled garden, nestled in among the masonry, where talllaurestinus and lemon trees grew, and orange and brown wallflowers madethe air sweet. Her contentment knew no bounds.
"I am so glad that I came," she told Mrs. Ashe. "I never confessed it toyou before; but sometimes.--when we were sick at sea, you know, and whenit would rain all the time, and after Amy caught that cold in Paris--Ihave almost wished, just for a minute or two at a time, that we hadn't.But now I wouldn't not have come for the world! This is perfectlydelicious. I am glad, glad, glad we are here, and we are going to have alovely time, I know."
They were passing out of the rooms into the hall as she said thesewords, and two ladies who were walking up a cross passage turned theirheads at the sound of her voice. To her great surprise Katy recognizedMrs. Page and Lilly.
"Why, Cousin Olivia, is it you?" she cried, springing forward withthe cordiality one naturally feels in seeing a familiar face in aforeign land.
Mrs. Page seemed rather puzzled than cordial. She put up her eyeglassand did not seem to quite make out who Katy was.
"It is Katy Carr, mamma," explained Lilly. "Well, Katy, this _is_ asurprise! Who would have thought of meeting you in Nice!"
There was a decided absence of rapture in Lilly's manner. She wasprettier than ever, as Katy saw in a moment, and beautifully dressed insoft brown velvet, which exactly suited her complexion and herpale-colored wavy hair.
"Katy Carr! why, so it is," admitted Mrs. Page. "It is a surpriseindeed. We had no idea that you were abroad. What has brought you so farfrom Tunket,--Burnet, I mean? Who are you with?"
"With my friend Mrs. Ashe," explained Katy, rather chilled by this coolreception.
"Let me introduce you. Mrs. Ashe, these are my cousins Mrs. Page andMiss Page. Amy,--why where is Amy?"
Amy had walked back to the door of the garden staircase, and wasstanding there looking down upon the flowers.
Cousin Olivia bowed rather distantly. Her quick eye took in the detailsof Mrs. Ashe's travelling-dress and Katy's dark blue ulster.
"Some countrified friend from that dreadful Western town where theylive," she said to herself. "How foolish of Philip Carr to try to sendhis girls to Europe! He can't afford it, I know." Her voice was ratherrigid as she inquired,--
"And what brings you here?--to this house, I mean?"
"Oh, we are coming to-morrow to stay; we have taken rooms for a month,"explained Katy. "What a delicious-looking old place it is."
"Have you?" said Lilly, in a voice which did not express any particularpleasure. "Why, we are staying here too."