Show The Tyrolean Episode Castle of the J the Cb Schemes S tb m s of Colonel ol n 1 Clay Elay I Copyright BY 1907 wo GRANT by W ALLEN AL G EN Chapman The two we liked best of f alt all t these tempting piles plies were Planta a and Schloss Lebenstein AVe We drove past both and even I myself I confess was distinctly CUY taken with them Besides when a I big bis purchase like Ike this is It on the stocks a poor Beggar of ot a secretary has always al ays a chance of exerting his In Influence fluence and ami earning for himself some modest commission Schloss Planta was wa the most externally I should say with its towers and Its great gnarled ms that looked as If it they antedated the tiro house of ol Hapsburg but Lebenstein was avas saId gaid to be better preserved within and more fitted In every way for lor modern occupation I J Its ts staircase c his has h s been pho Iho photographed photographed by amateurs Wo We Vo got tickets to view The rhe invaluable Invaluable able Cesarine procured them for us Armed with these thesA we drove off on one ont f fine ne afternoon meaning to go to Planta by recommendation Half Hal HalWay Halfway TV Way ay there however we clanged changed our mInds as it was such su h a lovely day flay and went vent on up tho the long slow hill to Le Lebenstein benstein I must say the drive through thA grounds was simply charming TI rh castle castlo stands perched say rather r poised like St Michael tho the archangel In n Italian pictures on a solitary stack cr ot crag rag of rock looking down on every side upon its own rich vineyards C Chestnuts line the glens the valley valle of the Etsch spreads below like a picture The vineyards alone make mak a splendid estate by the way wa they produce a delicious red wine which Is exported to Bordeaux and there bottled and sold as a vintage claret under the name of Chateau Charles reveled in inthe inthe the idea of growing his own wines Here Hrc we could sit Bit ho he h cried to Ame Amela 1 la a in the most literal sense under our own vine and fig I tree Delicious retirement For my m part Im sick and rEd of ot the hubbub of street We Te knocked at the door for there was really no boll bell but a ponderous wrought nt iron knocker So deliciously medieval The late Graf Gra Gran v n Lebenstein had recently r died we knew and his son the present count a man of means having i from his mothers family a still stillmore stillmore stillmore more ancient and splendid schloss in inthe inthe inthe the Salzburg district desired to sell this outlying estate In order to io afford himself a yacht after alter the manner that thatis is ig I now becoming 1 fashionable with the noblemen and gentlemen men in Germany and ani Austria The door was opened for us by a ah h high lugh gh wellborn menial attired in a n avery avery very ancient and honorable livery Nice antique hall suits of ancestral armor trophies of Tyrolese hunters hunt rs coats of ol arms of ancient nt counts the very cry thing to take Amelias aristocratic and romantic fancy lancy The Th whole to be besold besold besold sold exactly as it stood ancestors to tobe tobe tobe be included at a valuation We went through the reception rooms They The were lofty charming and with glorious all the more glorious for being framed by those these tho e graceful Romanesque windows with their slender pillars and an mint round t arches Sir Charles had made matle his mind up I must and will vill have haveIt It he cried This l Is the place placa for forme forme forme me Seldon Pah Sedon Seldon is a modern abomination Could we see the high wellborn count The liveried livened servant s some lat haughtily would r rf cf f his serene serem y Sir Charles sent up his card and iso aso Lady These for rs know title spells money in Eng England EngL L land n nHe He Hf was right in his surmise Two To minutes later the count entered with our cards Jn in his hands A ing young man with the characteristic Tyrolese long black mustache dressed in a gentlemanly variant on the tha cos costume costume costume tume of the country countr His air all was a jagers lagers the usual plume stuck jauntily in the side of or the tha eon on h hal Iral al hat which he held In his hand after atter the universal Austrian fashion He waved us to seats We Ve sat down He spoke to us In French his English he remarked with a pleasing smile being a quantity We Vc might speak it he went on he could understand under understand stand pretty well but hs he h preferred to answer if we would allow him in ht French Franch or German I French Charles replied rapHell and nd the negotiations continued thenceforth in that language It Is the only one olle nv English and his ancestral Dutch with which my possesses even a nodding acquaintance We c praised the beautiful scene The counts face lighted up with patriotic pride Yes it was beautiful his own green Tyrol He was of it and attached to it But he could endure to sell this place the home of his fathers for he had a finer one in the and a near Inns Innsbruck bruck bruek For Tyrol lacked just one on joy the thc sea He was wal a passionate yachts in mm fn For that he had resolved to sell this estate after all three country countr houses a ship and a mansion In n Vien Yien Vienna Vienna na are more mo than on one i man can com comfortably inhabit Exactly Charles answered hIt If I In Ican cm can n come Ome to terms with you about this charming harming estate I shall sell my own castle in the Scotch highlands And l I tried to look like a proud Scotch chief who harangues his clansmen cl Then they got to business The Thi rh count was a delightful man to t do business with His manners manner were perfect While 1110 we were talking to him a surly person a steward or bailiff or some something somethIng something thing of the sort came camu into he the room unexpectedly and addressed rim Urn in inGerman InGerman inGerman German which none of tf us understand Wt Vt were impressed by the singular urbanity and benignity of ol the noble mans m ns demeanor toward this sullen de dependent dependent dependent pendent He evidently explained to tf the fellow what sort of people we Were vere and remonstrated with him In a t cry ery gentle way for interrupting as IS The Tile steward understood and cleary deary ted his insolent air all fir or after acter a few he went out and as he lie did so 0 he bowed anti and made protestations of If polite regard in his own language The count turned to us and smiled Our Ouri i r ople pie he ha said hare are like your own Scotch cotch hearted pie pic picturesque pl tur free musical poetic but wanting alas In polish to strangers He was certainly an exception if he described them aright alight for hf made us ul feel at home from the moment we entered He named his price In frank frunk terns terms His lawyers at Meran held the needful documents and would arrange the ne no negotiations negotiations in detail with us Ufo It was WitS a stiff sum I must sayan say in n extremely stiff sum but no doubt hs lie h was charging ing us a fancy lancy price for tor a n fancy lan castle He will come down in n time Charles said The sun suii firs named in all these transactions is invariably a feeler leeler They know Im a 3 millionaire and peat pea peo t I pIe always imagine millionaires are positively made of off money I may add that people always imagine it must be easier to squeeze money out of ot millionaires than out jf oj if other peo people which is the reverse revelS of the truth or how could they ever havo have amassed their millions Instead of oozing gold goldas as a tree oozes gum they mop map it up like Ike blotting paper and seldom give it j i out again We Ve went to Meran The place was practically decided for us by Amelias French maid who really casts on such I occasions as our guide and courier i She Is such a clever girl Is Amelias French maid Whenever we are going anywhere Amelia generally asks and accepts her advice as to choice of ho hotels hotels hotels and furnished villas Cesarine had been all over oer the continent In her time and being Alsatian by birth she of course speaks German as well as she speaks French while her long residence with Amelia has made her at last lait al aJ almost almost most equally at home In our native English She Sh is a treasure that girl so neat and dexterous and not above dabbling in anything on earth she may be asked to turn her hand to She walks the world w with a needle case In one hand and aud an Etna In m the other She can cook an on occasion or drive a Norwegian cariole she can sew and knit and make dresses and ani cure a cold and do anything else on onearth onearth onearth earth you ask her Her salads are the most savoury I ever tasted taste while as asfor asfor asfor for her coffee which she prepares for forus forus forus us in the train on long there a chef cher Be cuisine at a West End club to be named in the same samo day da with her So when Amelia said in her imper I rious way Cesarine we want to go goto goto l to the Tyrol now at once m mid October where do you advise us to put up Cesarine answered like a ashot ashot ashot shot The Johann of oC course at Meran leran for the autumn madame UIs Is he hean an archduke Amelia asked a little tittle staggered at such apparent fa familiarity famIlIarity familiarity with imperial personages Ma foil foi no madame He Is an ho hotel tel telas as you would say in England the Victoria or the Prince of Wales the most comfortable hotel in all South Tyrol and at this time of year naturally naturally ally you must go beyond the Alps It begins already to be cold at Inns bruck So to Meran we went and a prettier or more picturesque place I confess I have seldom set eyes on A rushing torrent high hills and mountain peaks terraced vineyard slopes old walls and towers quaint arcaded streets a craggy waterfall a promenade after the fashion of a German Spa and when you lift your eyes from the ground Jagged summits of Dolomites it was a combination such as I had never before beheld a Rhine town plumped down among green Alpine heights and threaded by the cool colonnades col colonnades of Italy I approved choice and I Iwas Iwas Iwas was particularly glad she had pro pronounced pronounced pronounced for an hotel where all is plain sailing Instead of advising a aa furnished villa v lIla the arrangements for which would naturally have fallen in large part upon the shoulders of the wretched secretary As In any case I have to do three hours work a day I feel that such additions to my normal burden may well be spared me I tipped Ce Cesarine Cesarine sarine half halt a sovereign in fact for lor her judicious choice Cesarine glanced at It on her palm in her mysterious cu curious rious halt smiling way and pocketed it at once with a Merci monsieur that had a touch of contempt in It I always fancy Cesarine has large ideas of her own on the subject of tipping and thinks very small beer of the mod modest modest modest est sums a mere secretary can alone af afford afford ford to bestow upon her herThe herThe herThe The great peculiarity of Meran leran Is the number of I believe my plu plural plural plural ral is strictly irregular but very con convenient convenIent convenient to English ears which you can see in every direction from its out outskirts outskirts outskirts skirts A statistical eye it is supposed sup supposed supposed posed can count no fewer than forty of these picturesque old Did castles castIes from a point on the Kuchel berg For myself I hate statistics ex except except except as an element in financial pros prospectuses prospectuses prospectuses and I really dont know kItow how many ruinous piles Isabel and Amelia Amella counted under Cesan nes guidance cut cutI I remember that most of ot them were quaint and beautiful and that their variety of architecture seemed positively posItively positively bewildering One On Would be square with funny little turrets stuck out at each angle while another would rejoice in a big round keep and spread on either side long walls and delightful bastions Charles was Im Immensely Immensely immensely taken with them He loves the picturesque and has a poet hidden In that financial soul of his Very ef effectually effectually hidden though I am ready to grant you From the moment he came he felt at once he would love to possess a castle of his own among those th ro romantic romantic romantic mantic mountains Seldon Sel on he ex exclaimed exclaImed exclaimed claimed contemptuously They call Seldon a castle ca tle But you and I know lenaw very vel well Sey it was built in 1860 with wit antique stones for Macpherson of iJ del deldon don at market rates by Cubitt Co worshipful contractors of London Macpherson charged me for that sham antiquity a preposterous price at which one o e ought to procure pro ure a real ancestral an ancestral ancestral mansion Now these castles are real They are hoary with vita antiquity Schloss Tyrol is Romanesque tenth or r eleventh century He had been read reading ing tug it up in Baedeker the sort of place for me tenth or eleventh elev eleventh eleventh century I could live here remote from stocks and snares shares forever and andIn andin andin In these sequestered glens recollect Sey my boy bo there are no Colonel Clays Cias and no arch Madame Plear Pi car As a matter of fact he could have lived there six weeks and then tired for Park Lane Monte Carlo Brighton As s for Amelia strange to say she was equally taken with this new fad of Charles As a rule she hates hales every everywhere where on earth save London Londo except pt during the time when no respectable person pernon can be seen In town and when modest blinds shade the scandalized face of Mayfair and Belgravia She bores borts herself to death even at Seldon castle and anal yawns all flay day long In Paris Parl and Vienna She is a con confirmed confirmed confirmed firmed Cockney Yet Tet for some occult reason my m amiable fell in inlove inlove inlove love with South Tyrol She wanted to vegetate In the lush vegetation The rho grapes were being picked hung over the walls wails Virginia creeper draped the quaint gray glY with crimson cloaks and everything every thIn was as beautiful as a dream of I know I am quite right in m mentioning especially In connection with Romanesque ture because I heard him highly praised on oit that t T u 7 j I c I I L 1 e J I II I I II t I L LL I L I I III i irtI 4 J I wT fj w K KI nv e c d I I i a aU U h fA 7 Jr very v ery ground by bj our enemy nemy Dr Edward Polperro So perhaps it was excusable that thai Amelia should fall faU fallIn fallin In love with it all under the circum circumstances cIrcumstances circumstances stances besides she is largely in influenced influenced by what Cesarine says and Cesarine Ce arine declares there Is no climate in Europe like Meran leran in winter 1 T do donot donot donot not agree with her The sun mn sets be behind behind behind hind the hills at 3 in the afternoon and a So nasty nast warm wind blows blown I moist t tover over the snow in January and February February ary ar However Amelia set Cesarine to In Inquire inquire inquire quire of the people t the hotel about the market price of ot tumbledown ruins and the number of such eligible family mausoleums just jut then for sale In the t e immediate neighborhood Cesarine re returned returned returned turned with a full lull true trite and particular list adorned with flowers of rhetoric which would have he llIght d the soul of good old John Robins were all picturesque all Romanesque all rich richly richly ly all aU commodious all his historical historical historical and all the property of high wellborn Graf and amI very honorable Most of 0 f them ahem had been b ln the scene of celebrated tournaments sev several several several eral of them had witnessed the gor gorgeous gorgeous marriages of r holy Roman em emperors emperors emperors and every everyone one of them was wa l pro provided provided provided vided with |