During our walk through the town, we were followed by fifteen or twenty children, all greatly excited, who, for some minutes after we had re-entered our inn, remained crowded round the door without, shouting, "Inglese! Inglese!" with about the same amount of enthusiasm and common sense as the Ephesian silversmiths of old; and it was impossible to glance out of one's window without a corresponding rush from the juvenile crowd, who tumbled over one another in their eagerness to see the two surprising foreigners.
(N.B.—Next time I go up to London, and meet a Chinaman in Bond Street, or an African in Piccadilly, not so much as to glance out of the corners of my eyes at him.)
As No. 2 remarked, with her usual placidity of tone, to No. 3 on this occasion, "Couldn't you imagine we were two Christy Minstrels going down the street?"
After a very tolerable dinner, we sought our rooms with many misgivings. We had telegraphed our coming three days beforehand, so as to give our landlady plenty of time to scrape off a little of the natural dirt of the establishment before we arrived, if so disposed; but had been warned of the improbability of such a disposition on her part, owing to sheer ignorance on the subject of that rare Corsican virtue—cleanliness.
Even the taciturn Antonio would hold out little hope to us, and said he feared our accommodation would not suit us.
Our rooms were not re-assuring.
One led out of either end of the low dark salle à manger. They were small, with uneven, dirty, wooden floors, and almost destitute of furniture.
Mine boasted one broken chair, upon which it was unsafe to sit, whilst the washing apparatus was placed on the top of the only other piece of furniture in the room except the bed—a high chest of drawers, where a corner had with difficulty been cleared of its multitude of penny Madonnas and broken shells.
There was, of course, no looking-glass at all; and the jug and basin in both rooms consisted of an old green wine-bottle filled with dingy brown water, and placed in a species of shallow slop-basin. The windows were full of ventilating holes, and strips of filthy carpet adorned the floor by the bed-side, which strips we carefully took up and placed at the extremest corners of the rooms. All this was not inviting; and we discussed the advisability of sitting up all night, and getting a siesta next day; but finally braved the horrors of the little rooms, and found them far less horrible than their appearance warranted, and in all serious matters, fairly clean.
Great was our astonishment and proportionate our hearty gratitude to our bright-eyed hostess, when, next morning, she brought us in our hot coffee, and sour bread (apparently made in equal proportion of flour and sand), and eaten dry, perforce, as neither butter nor honey are attainable luxuries in inland Corsica.