CHAPTER II.

THE RIVIERA.


No ill without a counterbalancing advantage--An industry peculiar to
Italy--Italian honesty--Buffalo Bill at Naples--The Prince and the
straw-coloured gloves--The Riviera--A tapestry--Nice--Its flowers--Notre
Dame--The chateau--My gardener--A pension of ugly women--Horses and their
hats--Antibes--Meeting of Honore IV. and Napoleon--The Grimaldis--Lerins,
an Isle of Saints--A family jar--Healed.


That was not all. The dawdling of the tailor not only made me lose the
mid-day train, but delayed my arrival in Nice for twenty-four hours. I took
the night train to Pisa, where I purposed catching the express from Rome.
But the express came slouching along in a hands-in-the-pocket sort of way,
and was over half-an-hour late, and would not bestir itself to pick up the
misspent, lost moments between Pisa and Genoa, the consequence of which was
that the train for Nice had gone on without waiting, and accordingly those
who desired to prosecute their journey in that direction were obliged to
loiter about in the small hours of the morning between a restaurant, half
asleep, and a waiting-room where the electric light had gone out, till the
hour of seven.

Before leaving Italy, I may mention an industry which I found cultivated
there, original, and I believe unique. When I procured postage stamps at
the post-offices, I was surprised, if I took them home with me, to find