This Odo declined
to do; but his curiosity to see Mirandolina made him hope that chance
would soon throw him in the Procuratore's way.
Meanwhile supper was succeeded by music and dancing, and the company
broke up only in time to proceed to the landing-place where their barge
awaited them. This was a private burchiello of the Procuratore's with a
commodious antechamber for the servants, and a cabin cushioned in
damask. Into this agreeable retreat the actresses were packed with all
their bags and band-boxes; and their travelling-cloaks being rolled into
pillows, they were soon asleep in a huddle of tumbled finery.
Odo and his host preferred to take the air on deck. The sun was rising
above the willow-clad banks of the Brenta, and it was pleasant to glide
in the clear early light past sleeping gardens and villas, and vineyards
where the peasants were already at work. The wind setting from the sea,
they travelled slowly and had full leisure to view the succession of
splendid seats interspersed with gardens, the thriving villages, and the
poplar-groves festooned with vines. Coeur-Volant spoke eloquently of the
pleasures to be enjoyed in this delightful season of the villeggiatura.
"Nowhere," said he, "do people take their pleasures so easily and
naturally as in Venice. My countrymen claim a superiority in this art,
and it may be they possessed it a generation ago. But what a morose
place is France become since philosophy has dethroned enjoyment! If you
go on a visit to one of our noblemen's seats, what do you find there, I
ask? Cards, comedies, music, the opportunity for an agreeable intrigue
in the society of your equals? No--but a hostess engaged in suckling and
bathing her brats, or in studying chemistry and optics with some dirty
school-master, who is given the seat of honour at table and a pavilion
in the park to which he may retire when weary of the homage of the
great; while as for the host, he is busy discussing education or
political economy with his unfortunate guests, if, indeed, he is not
dragging them through leagues of mud and dust to inspect his latest
experiments in forestry and agriculture, or to hear a pack of snuffling
school-children singing hymns to the God of Nature! And what," he
continued, "is the result of it all? The peasants are starving, the
taxes are increasing, the virtuous landlords are ruining themselves in
farming on scientific principles, the tradespeople are grumbling because
the nobility do not spend their money in Paris, the court is dull, the
clergy are furious, the Queen mopes, the King is frightened, and the
whole French people are yawning themselves to death from Normandy to
Provence.
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