nd up to the clear shining stars of the
profound and peaceful summer night.

BOOK V

RAKE'S PROGRESS

CHAPTER I

IN WHICH THE READER IS COURTEOUSLY ENTREATED TO GROW OLDER BY THE SPACE
OF SOME FOUR YEARS, AND TO SAIL SOUTHWARD HO! AWAY

The southeasterly wind came fresh across the bay from the crested range
of the Monte Sant' Angelo. The blossoms of the Judas-trees, breaking
from the smooth gray stems and branches--on which they perch so
quaintly--fell in a red-mauve shower upon the slabs of the marble
pavement, upon the mimic waves of the fountain basin, and upon the
clustering curls, and truncated shoulders, of the bust of Homer
standing in the shade of the grove of cypress and ilex which sheltered
the square, high-lying hill-garden, at this hour of the morning, from
the fierceness of the sun. They floated as far even as the semicircular
steps of the pavilion on the extreme right--the leaded dome of which
showed dark and livid on the one side, white and glistering on the
other, against the immense and radiant panorama of mountain, sea, and
sky.

The garden, its fountains, neatly clipped shrubs, and formal paved
alleys, was backed by a large villa of the square, flat-roofed order
common to southern Italy. The record of its age had recently suffered
modification by application of a coat of stucco, of a colour
intermediate between faint lemon-yellow and pearl-gray, and by the
renovation of the fine arabesques--Pompeian in character--decorating
the narrow interspaces between its treble range of Venetian shutters.
Otherwise, the aspect of the Villa Vallorbes showed but small
alteration since the year when, for a few socially historic weeks, the
"glorious Lady Blessington," and her strangely assorted train,
condescended to occupy it prior to taking up their residence at the
Palazzo Belvedere near by. The walls were sufficiently massive to
withstand a siege. The windows of the ground floor, set in deeply-hewn
ashlar work, were cross-barred as those of a prison. Above, the central
windows and door of the entresol, opened on to a terrace of black and
white marble, from which at either end a wide, shallow-stepped, curved
stairway led down into the garden. The first floor consisted of a suite
of noble rooms, each of whose lofty windows gave on to a balcony of
wrought ironwork, very ornate in design. The topmost story, immediately
below the painted frieze of the parapet, coincided in height and in
detail wi