After ten o’clock, when, deliciously fatigued, I was on my way to my room along a great arcaded balcony which ran the length of the house, I met Joseph, lying in wait for me.  My conscience pricked.  I had forgotten to send the poor, tired fellow definite instructions for the next day.  He had come to solicit them, but, if I could judge by moonlight, he looked far from jaded; indeed, he had an air of alertness, for him almost of gaiety.

“You and Finois can have a rest to-morrow and the day after,” said I, “while I do some sightseeing.  I hear that I shall need one day at least for the town, and another for a drive to the chateaux and show-places of the neighbourhood.  I hope you will be able to amuse yourself.”

“Monsieur must not think of me.  I shall do very well,” dutifully replied Joseph.

“It is a pity that you and Innocentina do not get on.  Otherwise——­”

“Ah, perhaps I should tell monsieur that I may have misjudged the young woman a little.  It seems a question of bringing up, more than real badness of heart.  It is her tongue that is in fault; and I am not even sure that with good influences she might not improve.  I have been talking to her, Monsieur, of religion.  She is black Catholic, and I Protestant, but I think that some of my arguments made a certain impression upon her mind.”

After this, I gave myself no further anxiety about Joseph’s to-morrow, but went to bed, and dreamed of fighting for the Boy’s life, Gulliver-like, against a band of infuriated Brownies.

My first morning thought was to look out of all four windows at the mountains; my next, to ring for a bath.

Now, as a rule, your morning tub is a function you are not supposed to describe in detail; but not to picture the ceremony as performed at Aosta, is to pass by the place without giving the proper dash of local colour.

I rang.  A girl appeared who struck me as singularly beautiful, but I discovered later that all girls are more or less beautiful at Aosta.  The propriety of this morning visit was insured by the white cap, which was, so to speak, an adequate chaperon.  On my request for a bath, the beauty looked somewhat agitated, but, after reflection, said that she would fetch one, and vanished, tripping lightly along the balcony.

Twenty minutes then passed, and at the end of that time the young lady returned, almost obliterated by an enormous linen sheet which engulfed her like an avalanche.  She was accompanied by a man and a boy, staggering under a strange object which resembled a vast arm-chair, of the grandfather variety.  When placed on the floor, I became aware that it was a kind of cross between a throne and a bath-tub, and, having seen the huge sheet flung over it, I still rested in doubt as to the latter’s purpose.  The man and boy, who had not stood upon the order of their going, returned after an embarrassing absence, with pails of water, the contents of which, to my surprise, they flung upon the sheet.