United States or Gambia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The servants who had obeyed Mattei Perucca in fear and trembling, had refused to obey Denise, who, with much spirit, had dismissed them one and all. An old man remained, who was generally considered to be half-witted; and Maria Andrei, the widow of Pietro, who was shot at Olmeta. Denise superintended the small farm.
His house is next to the church at Olmeta and faces north-west; so that in the summer the evening sun glares across the valley into its windows. He was no great scholar, and had but a poor record in the archives of the college at Corte. Lory de Vasselot had written in a hurry, and the letter was a long one.
"Your newspapers are, no doubt, in the mail-bags," he said. "We had a good passage, and are a full ship. Of passengers I have two and ladies. One, by the way, is the heiress of Mattei Perucca over at Olmeta, whom you doubtless knew." The colonel turned, and looked towards the steamer with some interest. "Is that so?" he said reflectively. "Yes; a pinched old maid in a black dress.
He turned once and looked back at the towering cliff behind him, the rocky peninsula where the Casa Perucca stood amidst its great trees, and hid the village of Olmeta, perched on the mountain side behind it. The short winter twilight was almost gone before de Vasselot reached the base of the mound of half-shattered rock upon which the chateau had been built.
A few minutes later Denise remembered the enclosure a letter in a thick white envelope, which was still lying on her desk. She opened it. "I think I have the pleasure of addressing the daughter of an old comrade-in-arms, and this must be my excuse for at once approaching my object. I hear by accident that you have inherited from the late Mattei Perucca his small property near Olmeta in Corsica.
It is to the Abbe Susini at Olmeta; and it contains some of those things, my cousin, that I cannot tell you." "Do you think I care," said the baroness, "for your stupid politics? Do you think any woman cares for politics who has found some stupid man to care for her? There is my stupid in the street on his new horse." In a moment Lory was at the window. "A new horse," he said earnestly.
And Denise went away to write the letter that Lory had asked for in case she wanted him. She did not show it to Mademoiselle Brun, but went out and posted it herself in the little square box, painted white, affixed to the white wall on the high-road, and just within sight of Olmeta.
"Are you sure he is there?" she asked, still looking down at the chateau. "No, I am not. I have only Maria's word for it." "Then I am going to the village of Olmeta to find out," said Denise. And mademoiselle followed her to the house without comment. Indeed, she seemed willing enough to do that which they had been warned not to do.
No; but I have dropped no letter. Where was it? On the road?" "Down there," answered the colonel, pointing back with his whip, and handing over the letter with a final air as if it were no affair of his. "Perucca," read the man, slowly, in the manner of one having small dealings with pens and paper, "Mattei Perucca at Olmeta." "Ah," said the colonel, lighting a cigarette.
No honest man has set his foot across the threshold since the de Vasselots left it thirty years ago only Jean is there, who has the evil eye. But there are plenty of Perucca's people up at Olmeta who would risk Jean's eye, and break down the doors of the chateau at a word from the Casa Perucca. But the girl there who is the head of the clan will not say the word.
Word Of The Day