Though you didn't catch me, we shall meet before
long at some delightful Philippi.
"Yours, with the profoundest respect and gratitude,
"ANTONIO HERRERA,
"Otherwise RICHARD PEPLOE BRABAZON."
Charles laid down the letter with a deep-drawn sigh. "Sey, my boy,"
he mused aloud, "no fortune on earth--not even mine--can go on
standing it. These perpetual drains begin really to terrify me. I
foresee the end. I shall die in a workhouse. What with the money he
robs me of when he _is_ Colonel Clay, and the money I waste upon him
when he _isn't_ Colonel Clay, the man is beginning to tell upon my
nervous system. I shall withdraw altogether from this worrying life.
I shall retire from a scheming and polluted world to some untainted
spot in the fresh, pure mountains."
"You _must_ need rest and change," I said, "when you talk like that.
Let us try the Tyrol."
IV
THE EPISODE OF THE TYROLEAN CASTLE
We went to Meran. The place was practically decided for us by
Amelia's French maid, who really acts on such occasions as our
guide and courier.
She is _such_ a clever girl, is Amelia's French maid. Whenever we
are going anywhere, Amelia generally asks (and accepts) her advice
as to choice of hotels and furnished villas. Cesarine has been all
over the Continent in her time; and, being Alsatian by birth, she of
course speaks German as well as she speaks French, while her long
residence with Amelia has made her at last almost equally at home
in our native English.
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