The Travelling Companions: A Story in Scenes

SCENE--_A hundred yards or so from the top of Monte Generoso, above Lake Lugano._ CULCHARD, _who, with a crowd of other excursionists, has made the ascent by rail, is toiling up...

SCENE--_A Second-Class Compartment on the line between Wurzburg and Nuremberg._ PODBURY _has been dull and depressed all day, not having recovered from the parting with_ MISS TR...

SCENE--_A flight of steps by the lake in the grounds of the Insel Hôtel, Constance. Time, late afternoon. A small boat, containing three persons, is just visible far out on the...

SCENE--_On the Lagoons._ CULCHARD _and_ PODBURY'S _gondola is nearing Venice. The apricot-tinted diaper on the façade of the Ducal Palace is already distinguishable, and behind...

SCENE--_Upper deck of the Rhine Steamer_, König Wilhelm, _somewhere between Bonn and Bingen. The little tables on deck are occupied by English, American, and German tourists, dr...

PODBURY (_producing a pipe_). Not such a bad dinner! Expect they'll rook us a lot for it, though. Rather fun, seeing the waiters all troop in with a fresh course, when the propr...

SCENE--_A Bridge over the Pegnitz, at Nuremberg. Time, afternoon. The shadows of the old gabled and balconied houses are thrown sharply on the reddish-yellow water. Above the st...

SCENE--_Near Torcello._ CULCHARD _and_ PODBURY _are seated side by side in the gondola, which is threading its way between low banks, bright with clumps of Michaelmas daisies an...

SCENE--_The roof of Milan Cathedral; the innumerable statues and fretted pinnacles show in dazzling relief against the intense blue sky. Through the open-work of the parapet is...

MR. B. No. (_After reflecting._) No, I haven't. But I was greatly struck by its remarkably bold outline from below. Indeed, I dashed off a rough sketch of it on the back of one...

SCENE--_Gardens belonging to the Hôtel du Parc, Lugano. Time, afternoon; the orchestra is turning up in a kiosk._ CULCHARD _is seated on a bench in the shade, keeping an anxious...

SCENE.--_Garden of the Hotel Victoria at Bingen, commanding a view of the Rhine and the vine-terraced hills, which are bathed in warm afternoon sunlight. Under the mopheaded aca...

PODB. Yes, met Bob just now. They've gone to the Europa, but we've arranged to take a gondola together, and go about. They're to pick me up here. Ah, that looks rather like them...

SCENE--_The Wiertz Museum at Brussels, a large and well-lighted gallery containing the works of the celebrated Belgian, which are reducing a limited number of spectators to the...

SCENE--_Under the Colonnade of the Hôtel Grande Bretagne, Bellagio._ CULCHARD _is sitting by one of the pillars, engaged in constructing a sonnet. On a neighbouring seat a group...

SCENE--_On the Coach from Braine l'Alleud to Waterloo. The vehicle has a Belgian driver, but the conductor is a true-born Briton._ MR. CYRUS K. TROTTER _and his daughter are beh...

SCENE--_in Front of the Hôtel Bodenhaus at Splügen. The Diligence For Bellinzona is having its team attached. An elderly Englishwoman is sitting on her trunk, trying to run thro...

CULCHARD. So I am. That is, she is going over a metal-worker's show-room close by, and I--er--preferred the open air. But didn't you say you were going out with the--er--Prender...

CLERK. In one moment, Sir. (_He refers to a list, turns over innumerable books, jots down columns of francs, marks, and florins; reduces them to English money, and adds them up....

SCENE--_The Piazza of St. Mark at night. The roof and part of the façade gleam a greenish silver in the moonlight. The shadow of the Campanile falls, black and broad, across the...

PODB. (_reading aloud, with comments_). "For really to conceive the infinite divisibility of matter is mentally to follow out the divisions to infinity, and to do this would req...

SCENE--_The Tombs of the_ SCALIGERS _at Verona. A seedy and voluble Cicerone, who has insisted upon volunteering his services, is accompanying_ MISS TROTTER, BOB PRENDERGAST, _a...

PODB. You have, and no mistake. She's regularly taken me in hand, don't you know--she says I've no intelligent appreciation of Italian Art; and gad, I believe she's right there!...

SCENE--_The interior of a covered gondola, which is conveying_ CULCHARD _and_ PODBURY _from the Railway Station to the Hotel Dandolo, Venice. The gondola is gliding with a gentl...

SCENE--_The Lower Hall of the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice. British Tourists discovered studying the Tintorets on the walls and ceiling by the aid of Ruskin, Hare, and Bædeker, f...

SCENE--_A Balcony outside the Musik-Saal of the Insel Hotel, Constance._ MISS PRENDERGAST _is seated;_ CULCHARD _is leaning against the railing close by. It is about nine; the m...