Chapter XXIV

LADY SELINA VISITS HER ECCENTRIC AUNT IN SALVATOR ROSA’S COUNTRY.

There is a tract of country not far from Naples which is but little visited by the usual set of tourists, although some artists and admirers of Salvator Rosa venture among those scenes which he loved to paint. It is said to be infested by banditti, yet an eccentric English lady had bought an old house between La Cava and Caserta, and had lived for several years very happily amid the splendid scenery.

She generally came into Naples during the coldest part of the Winter, for there was no fireplace in any part of her large house except the kitchen. She was an old maid, of the strong-minded and independent kind, who advocated liberty, and had no faith in any religion. She was aunt to Lady Selina Bugginfield, and a great admirer of her beautiful niece, whose faults she scarcely saw; or, if she did, she attributed them to energy and contempt for the conventionalities of (as she said) a rotten society.

Mrs. Pocklingden was one of that numerous class of persons who admire and encourage the so-called liberalism which disposes of other people’s property, and declares that “La Propriété c’est le Vol.” But I much doubt whether any of these people would like to be deprived of their own--to give up their houses or money, or even their pet arm-chair. The want of common sense in those who advocate these communist principles, and who have anything to lose, passes comprehension! Yet what pseudo-clever speeches are made, and written, tending towards this very socialism, in most of the leading papers. Praise was given by some of them to the author of the following impious lines!--

“Salute, o Satana! O rebellione!
O forza vindice della ragione!
Sacri a te salgano gli inni e i voti;
Hai vinto il Jeovah dei sacerdoti.”

“Oh! Satan, hail! all hail, great rebel!
Thou who of reason art the avenging force!
Sacred to thee let votive hymns arise,
For thou the priest’s Jehovah hast o’ercome.”

To this out-of-the-way spot Lady Selina was now bending her steps by a cross mountain road from Caserta. She quitted the carriage at the latter place, and engaged mules to carry herself and servants, with a guide recommended by Cattarina. It was a fine bright day, and she found the journey very pleasant.

Her aunt, Miss Pockingden, was delightfully surprised to see her. It was most fortunate, she said, that she had not started for Naples, as she had thought of doing the day before; and now the weather was warmer, and with a good _scaldino_ in the drawing-room, they would be very comfortable.

Lady Selina had often been there before, for a day or two, but on the present occasion she found it so pleasant, and enjoyed the excursions they made in the romantically beautiful country so much, that she made up her mind to pass a week or more with her “dear amusing eccentric aunt.” The Spendfasts had arrived at Naples, and entered into all the gaieties of that place; and they wondered at Lady Selina’s preference for a _villeggiatura_ life that cold season of the year.

During this time the Chandos party still remained at Mola di Gaeta, as their presence was of real use to the Duke, and Norah’s and her father’s cheering society did, as the doctor declared, more good to the sufferer than any of his remedies. Norah had not heard of Lady Selina’s separation from the Spendfasts, and she was therefore much surprised when, a week afterwards, she received a letter from Lady Spendfast, complaining that she missed her cousin very much, and that it was so stupid of her to remain with that mad aunt of hers at her château up in the mountains, where she must be perished with the cold. “So provoking,” she wrote, “because she knows the great people here so much better than we do, therefore it is so shameful of her to desert us just at the beginning of our stay; and there is to be a Court held on Tuesday next, too. I really think she is as mad as her aunt, that odious Miss Pockingden, who I verily believe is in league with the banditti, and the carbonari, or some of the dreadful secret societies.”

These, and many other complaints, were made in Lady Spendfast’s long letter, which ended with a fervent hope that Norah would bring her handsome Duke to Naples as soon as possible, as their romantic adventures and miraculous escapes were the talk of all Naples, and their arrival would make quite a sensation. The King and the beautiful Princesses were longing to see her and the Duke, and said it was the most romantic story they had ever heard.

This letter annoyed Norah more than she liked to acknowledge, and filled her with a vague kind of dread, of what she knew not, but each time she read it over she felt more puzzled. It seemed so unlike the idea she had formed of Lady Selina’s character to go and bury herself amid romantic scenery with an old aunt, just as the gaieties of Naples were at their height. Could she have heard that Sir Alfred was in these wild regions?

There seemed no other solution to the mystery. But how could she have heard that Sir Alfred was likely to be there? All this time she had often observed Cattarina’s eyes looking at her with a sinister expression, and she began to think that the wily Italian knew something about it.

She showed the letter to her father, but he was more impressed by the provoking idea of the sensation which Lady Spendfast said would be created when they arrived at Naples, and he therefore suggested that they should go straight to Sorrento, and not remain in Naples till later; and this plan he thought would be best also for the Duke, as the climate and quiet of Sorrento would conduce to his recovery.

Norah was very much interested in the invalid, but she was not such an enthusiastic admirer of him as her father had become--so had Mrs. Chandos, and so had little Hetty, and the children. They were fascinated by his agreeability, and the gratitude he evinced for their kindness. And they were all enchanted at the idea of going to that lovely Sorrento which he had described to them in such glowing colours, for he had passed several months there some years ago. He had been a great traveller, and the stories he told them of his adventures in the East, and on the Nile, and in America, interested and amused them all; and the children enjoyed, above all things, the evenings they were allowed to spend in his room.