to be one of his
resting-places for a night. It was no new thing for Tony to strike out
his own line across country--his was a practised eye--to mark the course
by which a certain point was to be reached, and to know, by something
like instinct, where a ravine--where a river must lie--where the
mountain-side would descend too precipitously for human footsteps--where
the shelving decline would admit of a path--all these were his; and in
their exercise he had that sort of pride a man feels in what he deems a
gift.

This same pride and his hope together lightened the way, and he went
forward almost happy; so that once or twice he half asked himself if
fortune was not about to turn on him with a kindlier look than she had
yet bestowed? When about a mile from the high-road, a dull rumbling
sound, like far-away thunder, caught his ear: he looked up, and saw the
great massive carriage of the wealthy Sir Arthur rolling ponderously
along, with its six horses, and followed by a dense "wake" of dust for
half a mile behind. "I am glad that we have not met," muttered he: "I
could have wished to see Bella, and speak to her. She was ever my fast
friend; but that haughty old woman, in the midst of all the pride of
her wealth, would have jarred on me so far that I might have forgotten
myself. Why should my poverty provoke _her_ to slight me? My poverty
is mine, just as much as any malady that might befall me, and whose
sufferings I must bear as I may, and cannot ask another to endure for
me. It may try _me_ to stand up against, but surely it is no burden
to her; and why make it seem as a gulf between us?" Ah, Master Tony!
subtler heads than yours have failed to untie this knot. It was dusk
when he reached Sestri, and found himself in the little vine-clad porch
of the "Angelo d' Oro," a modest little inn for foot-travellers on the
verge of the sea. He ordered his supper to be served in the open
air, under the fresh foliage, and with the pleasant night-wind gently
stirring the leaves.

As the landlord arranged the table, he informed Tony that another
traveller had come a short time before, but so ignorant of the language
was he that he was only served by means of signs; and he seemed so poor,
too, that they had scruples about giving him a bed, and were disposed to
let him pass the night under the porch.

Tony learned that the traveller had only tasted a glass of wine and
a piece of bread, and then, as if overcome by fatigue and exhaus