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Anthony Trollope >> The Man Who Kept His Money In A Box
This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
from the 1864 "Tales of all Countries" Chapman and Hall edition.
THE MAN WHO KEPT HIS MONEY IN A BOX
by Anthony Trollope
I first saw the man who kept his money in a box in the midst of the
ravine of the Via Mala. I interchanged a few words with him or with
his wife at the hospice, at the top of the Splugen; and I became
acquainted with him in the courtyard of Conradi's hotel at Chiavenna.
It was, however, afterwards at Bellaggio, on the lake of Como, that
that acquaintance ripened into intimacy. A good many years have
rolled by since then, and I believe this little episode in his life
may be told without pain to the feelings of any one.
His name was -; let us for the present say that his name was Greene.
How he learned that my name was Robinson I do not know, but I remember
well that he addressed me by my name at Chiavenna. To go back,
however, for a moment to the Via Mala;--I had been staying for a few
days at the Golden Eagle at Tusis,--which, by-the-bye, I hold to be
the best small inn in all Switzerland, and its hostess to be, or to
have been, certainly the prettiest landlady,--and on the day of my
departure southwards, I had walked on, into the Via Mala, so that the
diligence might pick me up in the gorge. This pass I regard as one of
the grandest spots to which my wandering steps have ever carried me,
and though I had already lingered about it for many hours, I now
walked thither again to take my last farewell of its dark towering
rocks, its narrow causeway and roaring river, trusting to my friend
the landlady to see that my luggage was duly packed upon the
diligence. I need hardly say that my friend did not betray her trust.
As one goes out from Switzerland towards Italy, the road through the
Via Mala ascends somewhat steeply, and passengers by the diligence may
walk from the inn at Tusis into the gorge, and make their way through
the greater part of the ravine before the vehicle will overtake them.
This, however, Mr. Greene with his wife and daughter had omitted to
do. When the diligence passed me in the defile, the horses trotting
for a few yards over some level portion of the road, I saw a man's
nose pressed close against the glass of the coupe window. I saw more
of his nose than of any other part of his face, but yet I could
perceive that his neck was twisted and his eye upturned, and that he
was making a painful effort to look upwards to the summit of the rocks
from his position inside the carriage.
There was such a roar of wind and waters at the spot that it was not
practicable to speak to him, but I beckoned with my finger and then
pointed to the road, indicating that he should have walked. He
understood me, though I did not at the moment understand his answering
gesture. It was subsequently, when I knew somewhat of his habits,
that he explained to me that on pointing to his open mouth, he had
intended to signify that he would be afraid of sore throat in exposing
himself to the air of that damp and narrow passage.
I got up into the conductor's covered seat at the back of the
diligence, and in this position encountered the drifting snow of the
Splugen. I think it is coldest of all the passes. Near the top of
the pass the diligence stops for awhile, and it is here, if I
remember, that the Austrian officials demand the travellers'
passports. At least in those days they did so. These officials have
now retreated behind the Quadrilatere,--soon, as we hope, to make a
further retreat,--and the district belongs to the kingdom of United
Italy. There is a place of refreshment or hospice here, into which we
all went for a few moments, and I then saw that my friend with the
weak throat was accompanied by two ladies.
"You should not have missed the Via Mala," I said to him, as he stood
warming his toes at the huge covered stove.
"We miss everything," said the elder of the two ladies, who, however,
was very much younger than the gentleman, and not very much older than
her companion.
"I saw it beautifully, mamma," said the younger one; whereupon mamma
gave her head a toss, and made up her mind, as I thought, to take some
little vengeance before long upon her step-daughter. I observed that
Miss Greene always called her step-mother mamma on the first approach
of any stranger, so that the nature of the connection between them
might be understood. And I observed also that the elder lady always
gave her head a toss when she was so addressed.
"We don't mean to enjoy ourselves till we get down to the lake of
Como," said Mr. Greene. As I looked at him cowering over the stove,
and saw how oppressed he was with great coats and warm wrappings for
his throat, I quite agreed with him that he had not begun to enjoy
himself as yet. Then we all got into our places again, and I saw no
more of the Greenes till we were standing huddled together in the
large courtyard of Conradi's hotel at Chiavenna.
Chiavenna is the first Italian town which the tourist reaches by this
route, and I know no town in the North of Italy which is so closely
surrounded by beautiful scenery. The traveller as he falls down to it
from the Splugen road is bewildered by the loveliness of the valleys,-
-that is to say, if he so arranges that he can see them without
pressing his nose against the glass of a coach window. And then from
the town itself there are walks of two, three, and four hours, which I
think are unsurpassed for wild and sometimes startling beauties. One
gets into little valleys, green as emeralds, and surrounded on all
sides by grey broken rocks, in which Italian Rasselases might have
lived in perfect bliss; and then again one comes upon distant views up
the river courses, bounded far away by the spurs of the Alps, which
are perfect,--to which the fancy can add no additional charm.
Conradi's hotel also is by no means bad; or was not in those days.
For my part I am inclined to think that Italian hotels have received a
worse name than they deserve; and I must profess that, looking merely
to creature comforts, I would much sooner stay a week at the Golden
Key at Chiavenna, than with mine host of the King's Head in the
thriving commercial town of Muddleboro, on the borders of Yorkshire
and Lancashire.
I am always rather keen about my room in travelling, and having
secured a chamber looking out upon the mountains, had returned to the
court-yard to collect my baggage before Mr. Greene had succeeded in
realising his position, or understanding that he had to take upon
himself the duties of settling his family for the night in the hotel
by which he was surrounded. When I descended he was stripping off the
outermost of three great coats, and four waiters around him were
beseeching him to tell them what accommodation he would require. Mr.
Greene was giving sundry very urgent instructions to the conductor
respecting his boxes; but as these were given in English, I was not
surprised to find that they were not accurately followed. The man,
however, was much too courteous to say in any language that he did not
understand every word that was said to him. Miss Greene was standing
apart, doing nothing. As she was only eighteen years of age, it was
of course her business to do nothing; and a very pretty little girl
she was, by no means ignorant of her own beauty, and possessed of
quite sufficient wit to enable her to make the most of it.
Mr. Greene was very leisurely in his proceedings, and the four waiters
were almost reduced to despair.
"I want two bed-rooms, a dressing-room, and some dinner," he said at
last, speaking very slowly, and in his own vernacular. I could not in
the least assist him by translating it into Italian, for I did not
speak a word of the language myself; but I suggested that the man
would understand French. The waiter, however, had understood English.
Waiters do understand all languages with a facility that is
marvellous; and this one now suggested that Mrs. Greene should follow
him up-stairs. Mrs. Greene, however, would not move till she had seen
that her boxes were all right; and as Mrs. Greene was also a pretty
woman, I found myself bound to apply myself to her assistance.
"Oh, thank you," said she. "The people are so stupid that one can
really do nothing with them. And as for Mr. Greene, he is of no use
at all. You see that box, the smaller one. I have four hundred
pounds' worth of jewellery in that, and therefore I am obliged to look
after it."
"Indeed," said I, rather startled at this amount of confidence on
rather a short acquaintance. "In that case I do not wonder at your
being careful. But is it not rather rash, perhaps--"
"I know what you are going to say. Well, perhaps it is rash. But
when you are going to foreign courts, what are you to do? If you have
got those sort of things you must wear them."
As I was not myself possessed of anything of that sort, and had no
intention of going to any foreign court, I could not argue the matter
with her. But I assisted her in getting together an enormous pile of
luggage, among which there were seven large boxes covered with canvas,
such as ladies not uncommonly carry with them when travelling. That
one which she represented as being smaller than the others, and as
holding jewellery, might be about a yard long by a foot and a half
deep. Being ignorant in those matters, I should have thought it
sufficient to carry all a lady's wardrobe for twelve months. When the
boxes were collected together, she sat down upon the jewel-case and
looked up into my face. She was a pretty woman, perhaps thirty years
of age, with long light yellow hair, which she allowed to escape from
her bonnet, knowing, perhaps, that it was not unbecoming to her when
thus dishevelled. Her skin was very delicate, and her complexion
good. Indeed her face would have been altogether prepossessing had
there not been a want of gentleness in her eyes. Her hands, too, were
soft and small, and on the whole she may be said to have been
possessed of a strong battery of feminine attractions. She also well
knew how to use them.
"Whisper," she said to me, with a peculiar but very proper aspiration
on the h--"Wh-hisper," and both by the aspiration and the use of the
word I knew at once from what island she had come. "Mr. Greene keeps
all his money in this box also; so I never let it go out of my sight
for a moment. But whatever you do, don't tell him that I told you
so."
I laid my hand on my heart, and made a solemn asseveration that I
would not divulge her secret. I need not, however, have troubled
myself much on that head, for as I walked up stairs, keeping my eye
upon the precious trunk, Mr. Greene addressed me.
"You are an Englishman, Mr. Robinson," said he. I acknowledged that I
was.
"I am another. My wife, however, is Irish. My daughter,--by a former
marriage,--is English also. You see that box there."
"Oh, yes," said I, "I see it." I began to be so fascinated by the box
that I could not keep my eyes off it.
"I don't know whether or no it is prudent, but I keep all my money
there; my money for travelling, I mean."
"If I were you, then," I answered, "I would not say anything about it
to any one."
"Oh, no, of course not," said he; "I should not think of mentioning
it. But those brigands in Italy always take away what you have about
your person, but they don't meddle with the heavy luggage."
"Bills of exchange, or circular notes," I suggested.
"Ah, yes; and if you can't identify yourself, or happen to have a
headache, you can't get them changed. I asked an old friend of mine,
who has been connected with the Bank of England for the last fifty
years, and he assured me that there was nothing like sovereigns."
"But you never get the value for them."
"Well, not quite. One loses a franc, or a franc and a half. But
still, there's the certainty, and that's the great matter. An English
sovereign will go anywhere," and he spoke these words with
considerable triumph.
"Undoubtedly, if you consent to lose a shilling on each sovereign."
"At any rate, I have got three hundred and fifty in that box," he
said. "I have them done up in rolls of twenty-five pounds each."
I again recommended him to keep this arrangement of his as private as
possible,--a piece of counsel which I confess seemed to me to be much
needed,--and then I went away to my own room, having first accepted an
invitation from Mrs. Greene to join their party at dinner. "Do," said
she; "we have been so dull, and it will be so pleasant."
I did not require to be much pressed to join myself to a party in
which there was so pretty a girl as Miss Greene, and so attractive a
woman as Mrs. Greene. I therefore accepted the invitation readily,
and went away to make my toilet. As I did so I passed the door of Mr.
Greene's room, and saw the long file of boxes being borne into the
centre of it.
I spent a pleasant evening, with, however, one or two slight
drawbacks. As to old Greene himself, he was all that was amiable; but
then he was nervous, full of cares, and somewhat apt to be a bore. He
wanted information on a thousand points, and did not seem to
understand that a young man might prefer the conversation of his
daughter to his own. Not that he showed any solicitude to prevent
conversation on the part of his daughter. I should have been
perfectly at liberty to talk to either of the ladies had he not wished
to engross all my attention to himself. He also had found it dull to
be alone with his wife and daughter for the last six weeks.
He was a small spare man, probably over fifty years of age, who gave
me to understand that he had lived in London all his life, and had
made his own fortune in the city. What he had done in the city to
make his fortune he did not say. Had I come across him there I should
no doubt have found him to be a sharp man of business, quite competent
to teach me many a useful lesson of which I was as ignorant as an
infant. Had he caught me on the Exchange, or at Lloyd's, or in the
big room of the Bank of England, I should have been compelled to ask
him everything. Now, in this little town under the Alps, he was as
much lost as I should have been in Lombard Street, and was ready
enough to look to me for information. I was by no means chary in
giving him my counsel, and imparting to him my ideas on things in
general in that part of the world;--only I should have preferred to be
allowed to make myself civil to his daughter.
In the course of conversation it was mentioned by him that they
intended to stay a few days at Bellaggio, which, as all the world
knows, is a central spot on the lake of Como, and a favourite resting-
place for travellers. There are three lakes which all meet here, and
to all of which we give the name of Como. They are properly called
the lakes of Como, Colico, and Lecco; and Bellaggio is the spot at
which their waters join each other. I had half made up my mind to
sleep there one night on my road into Italy, and now, on hearing their
purpose, I declared that such was my intention.
"How very pleasant," said Mrs. Greene. "It will be quite delightful
to have some one to show us how to settle ourselves, for really--"
"My dear, I'm sure you can't say that you ever have much trouble."
"And who does then, Mr. Greene? I am sure Sophonisba does not do much
to help me."
"You won't let me," said Sophonisba, whose name I had not before
heard. Her papa had called her Sophy in the yard of the inn.
Sophonisba Greene! Sophonisba Robinson did not sound so badly in my
ears, and I confess that I had tried the names together. Her papa had
mentioned to me that he had no other child, and had mentioned also
that he had made his fortune.
And then there was a little family contest as to the amount of
travelling labour which fell to the lot of each of the party, during
which I retired to one of the windows of the big front room in which
we were sitting. And how much of this labour there is incidental to a
tourist's pursuits! And how often these little contests do arise upon
a journey! Who has ever travelled and not known them? I had taken up
such a position at the window as might, I thought, have removed me out
of hearing; but nevertheless from time to time a word would catch my
ear about that precious box. "I have never taken MY eyes off it since
I left England," said Mrs. Greene, speaking quick, and with a
considerable brogue superinduced by her energy. "Where would it have
been at Basle if I had not been looking after it?" "Quite safe," said
Sophonisba; "those large things always are safe." "Are they, Miss?
That's all you know about it. I suppose your bonnet-box was quite
safe when I found it on the platform at--at--I forget the name of the
place?"
"Freidrichshafen," said Sophonisba, with almost an unnecessary amount
of Teutonic skill in her pronunciation. "Well, mamma, you have told
me of that at least twenty times." Soon after that, the ladies took
them to their own rooms, weary with the travelling of two days and a
night, and Mr. Greene went fast asleep in the very comfortless chair
in which he was seated.
At four o'clock on the next morning we started on our journey.
"Early to bed, and early to rise,
Is the way to be healthy, and wealthy, and wise."
We all know that lesson, and many of us believe in it; but if the
lesson be true, the Italians ought to be the healthiest and wealthiest
and wisest of all men and women. Three or four o'clock seems to them
quite a natural hour for commencing the day's work. Why we should
have started from Chiavenna at four o'clock in order that we might be
kept waiting for the boat an hour and a half on the little quay at
Colico, I don't know; but such was our destiny. There we remained an
hour and a half; Mrs. Greene sitting pertinaciously on the one
important box. She had designated it as being smaller than the
others, and, as all the seven were now ranged in a row, I had an
opportunity of comparing them. It was something smaller,--perhaps an
inch less high, and an inch and a half shorter. She was a sharp
woman, and observed my scrutiny. "I always know it," she said in a
loud whisper, "by this little hole in the canvas," and she put her
finger on a slight rent on one of the ends. "As for Greene, if one of
those Italian brigands were to walk off with it on his shoulders,
before his eyes, he wouldn't be the wiser. How helpless you men are,
Mr. Robinson!"
"It is well for us that we have women to look after us."
"But you have got no one to look after you;--or perhaps you have left
her behind?"
"No, indeed. I'm all alone in the world as yet. But it's not my own
fault. I have asked half a dozen."
"Now, Mr. Robinson!" And in this way the time passed on the quay at
Colico, till the boat came and took us away. I should have preferred
to pass my time in making myself agreeable to the younger lady; but
the younger lady stood aloof, turning up her nose, as I thought, at
her mamma.
I will not attempt to describe the scenery about Colico. The little
town itself is one of the vilest places under the sun, having no
accommodation for travellers, and being excessively unhealthy; but
there is very little either north or south of the Alps,--and, perhaps,
I may add, very little elsewhere,--to beat the beauty of the mountains
which cluster round the head of the lake. When we had sat upon those
boxes that hour and a half, we were taken on board the steamer, which
had been lying off a little way from the shore, and then we commenced
our journey. Of course there was a good deal of exertion and care
necessary in getting the packages off from the shore on to the boat,
and I observed that any one with half an eye in his head might have
seen that the mental anxiety expended on that one box which was marked
by the small hole in the canvas far exceeded that which was extended
to all the other six boxes. "They deserve that it should be stolen,"
I said to myself, "for being such fools." And then we went down to
breakfast in the cabin.
"I suppose it must be safe," said Mrs. Greene to me, ignoring the fact
that the cabin waiter understood English, although she had just
ordered some veal cutlets in that language.
"As safe as a church," I replied, not wishing to give much apparent
importance to the subject.
"They can't carry it off here," said Mr. Greene. But he was innocent
of any attempt at a joke, and was looking at me with all his eyes.
"They might throw it overboard," said Sophonisba. I at once made up
my mind that she could not be a good-natured girl. The moment that
breakfast was over, Mrs. Greene returned again up-stairs, and I found
her seated on one of the benches near the funnel, from which she could
keep her eyes fixed upon the box. "When one is obliged to carry about
one's jewels with one, one must be careful, Mr. Robinson," she said to
me apologetically. But I was becoming tired of the box, and the
funnel was hot and unpleasant, therefore I left her.
I had made up my mind that Sophonisba was ill-natured; but,
nevertheless, she was pretty, and I now went through some little
manoeuvres with the object of getting into conversation with her.
This I soon did, and was surprised by her frankness. "How tired you
must be of mamma and her box," she said to me. To this I made some
answer, declaring that I was rather interested than otherwise in the
safety of the precious trunk. "It makes me sick," said Sophonisba,
"to hear her go on in that way to a perfect stranger. I heard what
she said about her jewellery."
"It is natural she should be anxious," I said, "seeing that it
contains so much that is valuable."
"Why did she bring them?" said Sophonisba. "She managed to live very
well without jewels till papa married her, about a year since; and now
she can't travel about for a month without lugging them with her
everywhere. I should be so glad if some one would steal them."
"But all Mr. Greene's money is there also."
"I don't want papa to be bothered, but I declare I wish the box might
be lost for a day or so. She is such a fool; don't you think so, Mr.
Robinson?"
At this time it was just fourteen hours since I first had made their
acquaintance in the yard of Conradi's hotel, and of those fourteen
hours more than half had been passed in bed. I must confess that I
looked upon Sophonisba as being almost more indiscreet than her
mother-in-law. Nevertheless, she was not stupid, and I continued my
conversation with her the greatest part of the way down the lake
towards Bellaggio.
These steamers which run up and down the lake of Como and the Lago
Maggiore, put out their passengers at the towns on the banks of the
water by means of small rowing-boats, and the persons who are about to
disembark generally have their own articles ready to their hands when
their turn comes for leaving the steamer. As we came near to
Bellaggio, I looked up my own portmanteau, and, pointing to the
beautiful wood-covered hill that stands at the fork of the waters,
told my friend Greene that he was near his destination. "I am very
glad to hear it," said he, complacently, but he did not at the moment
busy himself about the boxes. Then the small boat ran up alongside
the steamer, and the passengers for Como and Milan crowded up the
side.
"We have to go in that boat," I said to Greene.
"Nonsense!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, but we have."
"What! put our boxes into that boat," said Mrs. Greene. "Oh dear!
Here, boatman! there are seven of these boxes, all in white like
this," and she pointed to the one that had the hole in the canvas.
"Make haste. And there are two bags, and my dressing case, and Mr.
Greene's portmanteau. Mr. Greene, where is your portmanteau?"
The boatman whom she addressed, no doubt did not understand a word of
English, but nevertheless he knew what she meant, and, being well
accustomed to the work, got all the luggage together in an incredibly
small number of moments.
"If you will get down into the boat," I said, "I will see that the
luggage follows you before I leave the deck."
"I won't stir," she said, "till I see that box lifted down. Take
care; you'll let it fall into the lake. I know you will."
"I wish they would," Sophonisba whispered into my ear.
Mr. Greene said nothing, but I could see that his eyes were as
anxiously fixed on what was going on as were those of his wife. At
last, however, the three Greens were in the boat, as also were all the
packages. Then I followed them, my portmanteau having gone down
before me, and we pushed off for Bellaggio. Up to this period most of
the attendants around us had understood a word or two of English, but
now it would be well if we could find some one to whose ears French
would not be unfamiliar. As regarded Mr. Greene and his wife, they, I
found, must give up all conversation, as they knew nothing of any
language but their own. Sophonisba could make herself understood in
French, and was quite at home, as she assured me, in German. And then
the boat was beached on the shore at Bellaggio, and we all had to go
again to work with the object of getting ourselves lodged at the hotel
which overlooks the water.