01 The School at the Chalet (13 page)

‘But we might take some home,’ suggested Joey. ‘We can get them when we come back. Don’t buy any now, Grizel. They’d only be an awful nuisance to cart about. Gisela, is there anywhere where I can buy a picture of the Tiern See? I think M-my sister would like that best.’

‘Yes, of course! There is a very good shop in the Mariatheresien Strasse where they have pictures and photographs too. We can go there as we go to the restaurant.’

‘Here is Onkel Florian,’ observed Bette at this juncture.

Herr Marani came out of the shop at that moment, and taking Joey’s hand, and with Bette on his other arm, said, ‘And now we are all ready for the important part of our holiday. Let us go to the shop.’ He turned off as he spoke down one of the side-streets that lead from the Landhaus Strasse to the Museum Strasse.

There is much more camaraderie between Austrians and their children than between Germans and theirs, and the Tyrolese middle class and upper middle class treat their boys and girls with a freedom nearly conforming to English ideas. Herr Marani, a tall, Italian-looking man, was devoted to his two daughters and his pretty niece, and Joey and Grizel felt no shyness with him, so that all their tongues were soon going at full speed. He good-naturedly paused to let them look at the shops, and answered their questions as well as he was able, promising them a visit to the Ferdinandeum Museum in the autumn, and also one to the theatre when there should be a good play.

‘But not now,’ he said. ‘ Now the sun shines, and it is well to be out in the fresh air. When the winter cold comes we will have our inside amusements. Now this is the shop where the china is sold. Let us go in and choose.’

It was all very well to say it, but it was dreadfully difficult to decide among so much. There was one coffee-service bespattered with pink roses on a black ground, and another with a purple clematis pattern all over it, and they paused a long time before one in gold and black. However, they finally agreed on one with a blue and yellow design on a white ground, which had a quaintly foreign air to both Joey and Grizel, and Herr Marani told the woman in charge to pack it up and have it ready for them to take to the station when they should return from the Brenner drive. Then they left the shop, and turned out of the Museum Strasse into the Mariatheresien Strasse, which is a fine, wide street with very good modern shops. Whether you look down or up it, you see the mountains with which Innsbrück is ringed round. At the south end stands the triumphal arch and gate, and beyond them, the Herzog Friedrich Strasse, with its crowning glory of the
Goldenes Dachl
or ‘ Golden Roof.’

Grizel loved the great wide sweep of the more modern street; Joey preferred the history-steeped narrowness of the Emperor Frederick’s day-and there you have the difference between the two girls. Herr Marani had discovered it long since, but it amused him to see it once again in their arguments about the two most famous thoroughfares of his beloved native city. However, time was getting on, so he hushed their arguments, and led them across the road to the shop on the opposite side of the street, where Joey soon succeeded in choosing a charming picture of the Tiern See for her sister. Then they crossed once more, and entered the Mariatheresien Restaurant.

They did not pause in the crowded room which faces on to the street, but went right through to the Garden Room, where palms, a fountain, and creeper-hung trellises gave an open-air atmosphere which was very delightful. Electric fans whirling round kept the air fresh and cool, and they all sat down with sighs of relief.

It really was boiling in the streets!

When she was comfortably settled, Joey looked round, and gave a little squeal.

‘Gisela! Look! There’s that horrid fat woman!’

Gisela, who was opposite her, promptly turned round, nearly overturning her chair as she did so, and saw, sitting a few yards away, their late enemy of the train. She had not seen them, for she was buried in a current number of the
Fliegende Blätter
, which is the German
Punch
, and she looked hotter than ever.

‘Horrid old freak!’ murmured Grizel. ‘Doesn’t she look awful?’

‘Like a scarlet hippopotamus!’ suggested Joey. ‘If I were as fat as that I should go and drown myself.’

Herr Marani, who had been discussing the menu with the waiter, turned at this moment, and caught the last speech of his youngest guest.

‘Josephine! ‘ he exclaimed in horror.

Joey had the grace to blush. ‘I know it’s rude of me,’ she mumbled, ‘but-she is fat, isn’t she, Herr Marani?’

‘Hush, my child,’ he replied. ‘It is wrong to say such things of one so much older. She is not, perhaps, so charming as one would wish, but we must forget that. Now let us discuss our drive up the Brenner Road. I propose that we go to the Alte Post, where we can get coffee and rolls and butter. Perhaps we may be able to find a zither-player, and then you shall hear some of our mountain songs amidst the grandest scenery on earth. Then, when we have had coffee, and you have gathered your flowers, we will come down, and stop at the shops for our parcels, and then we must catch the train. You like that? Yes?’

‘Oh, rather!’ said Joey enthusiastically. ‘It’s jolly good of you to give us such a ripping treat, Herr Marani.’

He laughed. ‘I, too, like a little holiday. Here comes the soup.’

Joey’s eyes widened at the thought of soup on so hot a day, but when it came, she discovered that it was iced, and very delicious. From her seat she could see Frau Berlin gobbling up soup also, with small regard for good manners. However, Herr Marani kept her attention occupied, and she soon forgot the fat lady. Frau Berlin, on the other hand, had just seen them, and she looked furious. In her indignation she allowed her temper to overcome her discretion, and she spat vehemently in their direction, just as the head waiter passed between them.

There was an instant uproar; for he, in the shock of the moment, stepped heavily backwards, almost upsetting Gisela, whose plate of soup went flying. Herr Marani sprang to his feet, and a couple of Italians who were lunching near joined in at once, pouring forth a flood of questions and exclamations, and, when the angry manager appeared on the scene, explanations of the whole affair. Several people who were sitting near stood up to see better what was happening. The author of all the disturbance snorted out something about
Verdammte Engländerinen
, and demanded her bill. Ten minutes later she had gone, everyone had sat down, the head waiter’s feelings had been soothed by a gift of
Trinkgeld
from Herr Marani, and the manager had vanished, with only a very hazy idea of what had occurred, but convinced by everyone that the fault lay with Frau Berlin. ‘I hope that is the last time we shall see her,’ said Gisela.

‘She has been horrid all round!’ declared Grizel with conviction. ‘But it was rather fun, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, it was,’ agreed Bette; ‘but, like Gisela, I hope we shall see her no more.’

However, they were destined to meet her again, though this they could not possibly know just then.

They finished their meal without further disturbance, and then Herr Marani took them back to the Station Square, where they got into one of the quaint open carriages which always amused the English girls so, and set off for their drive into the mountains.

Chapter 13.

At The Alte Post.

‘Oh! Isn’t this gorgeous?’ Joey Bettany drew a long breath as she gazed round her at the mountains which rose on every side in majestic splendour, while below, the pine forests swept down to the valley, where the Inn went brawling past, hurrying down to join Father Danube. At first they had passed houses and Châlets, and people leading heavily-laden mules had stopped to look after them; but for the last half-hour they had met no one. Herr Marani smiled kindly down at the little girl. Her enthusiasm pleased him, for, like all Tyroleans, he loved his country devotedly.

‘It is finer farther up,’ he said. ‘As we get higher and higher, we see the peaks at the other side; and if we go high enough, we can see the Stubai Glacier. We must take you there some day.’

‘If it’s fine, we’re going up the Mondscheinspitze on Madge’s birthday, you know,’ said Joey eagerly.

‘So? That is a pleasant little climb.’

‘I want to climb the Tiernjoch,’ put in Grizel. ‘I mean to some day, too!’

Now Grizel had said nothing about climbing the Tiernjoch lately, so Joey had imagined she had forgotten about her desire to make its ascent, and she was thoroughly dismayed at Grizel’s remark.

‘I wish Herr Mensch had never said anything about it!’ she thought.

Herr Marani raised his eyebrows at Grizel’s words. ‘The Tiernjoch? It is not a girl’s climb. Best leave it alone-for the present at any rate,’ he said decisively.

‘I mean to go,’ said Grizel stubbornly. ‘And I’m not a baby, Herr Marani.’

‘But will Madame permit it?’ put in Gisela somewhat tactlessly. ‘It is, as Papa says, a very difficult climb-I have not done it yet! It would tire you, Grizel.’

Grizel made no answer, but her mouth took its old obstinate lines, and Joey made haste to change the conversation.

‘Oh, Herr Marani! Look at that little boy crossing his fingers at us! Why ever does he do that?’

‘He is making “the horns,” ‘ laughed Herr Marani; ‘just in case any of us have the evil eye. That will drive away the danger.’

‘What cheek! As if we could! I never heard such nonsense!’

Gisela laughed at Joey’s vehemence. ‘We are strangers, and those living in the mountains are very superstitious, naturally. Some of the children see no one but their own relatives all the year round. But all the same, they must see people go past in automobiles,’ she added, ‘for this is the high road into Italy.’

‘It’s the road Napoleon came by, I know, said Joey. ‘I’m awfully glad to see it on that account.’

‘You admire him? But he allowed his soldiers to be terribly cruel!’ cried Bette. ‘Think of what they did to Andreas Hofer when they took him prisoner!’

‘Yes, we of the Tyrol find it hard to forgive the treatment meted out by the French to our great patriot,’

said Herr Marani. ‘We are proud of him, for he died for freedom.’

‘But Napoleon couldn’t know what a great man he was,’ pleaded Joey. ‘He didn’t know how the soldiers were treating him till it was too late!’

‘He need not have ordered his death,’ replied Bette.

‘But they were at war, and Andreas Hofer was the leader.’

‘You must agree to differ,’ said Herr Marani, seeing that the two were becoming very heated.

‘And anyway, they’ve both been dead ages,’ Grizel chimed in. ‘I never can see why you make such a fuss about people who are past and done with, Joey. They can’t possibly make any difference to you one way or the other now.’

Their kindly host burst out laughing at this extremely matter-of-fact view of things, and then pointed out to them a huge, white, barn-like building up the mountain-side.

‘That is the Alte Post,’ he said. ‘We shall be there in half an hour now, and then we will have our coffee–’

‘Papa!’ Gisela interrupted him with a cry of dismay. ‘The cakes! We have forgotten the cakes! Now we shall only have rolls and butter.’

‘Gott in Himmel! But how thoughtless!’ Herr Marani looked as perturbed as his daughter.

‘Perhaps they will have
Kuchen
at the inn,’ suggested Bette, not very hopefully.

‘And anyway, it doesn’t matter,’ added Joey. ‘We can get cakes any day when we’re in the town.’

The big Austrian’s face cleared at that. ‘ That is true,
Bübchen
. You shall have cakes for Fräulein Bettany’s birthday to make up for your disappointment to-day. My mother makes delicious honey and nut cakes, and I will ask her to make some for you.’

‘Oh, that would be ripping of you if you will,’ said Joey fervently.

‘Topping!’ agreed Grizel.

‘Grandmamma makes wonderful cakes,’ said Gisela. ‘We all love them.’

‘Madge will be bucked!’ murmured Madge’s small sister. ‘She is going to have a jolly birthday!’

‘It won’t be a bit like English birthdays,’ observed Grizel. ‘Except the presents, of course, and the flowers!’

‘And the birthday cake,’ added Joey. ‘She and Mademoiselle have made a huge one, all rich and plummy, with a threepenny and a button and a ring in.’

‘But why?’ demanded Gisela. ‘I do not understand.’

‘Don’t you? Why, whoever gets the threepenny will be rich, and the ring means marriage, and the button an old maid,’ explained Joey. ‘We always did it at home; and candles round the cake too-as many candles as you are years old.’

‘Is Miss Bettany going to have candles?’ queried Grizel with interest.

‘I don’t know; she didn’t say. I expect she will, though. Oh, Herr Marani! Just look at those flowers! Can’t we get out and gather some?’

‘Best to wait till we return,’ he advised. ‘Then your flowers will be fresh to take home. We are almost there now. Just one more turn and we reach it.’

‘I say! Wouldn’t it be awful if Frau Berlin were to be there?’

All the others turned to Grizel, who had made this charming suggestion.

‘Goodness! I hope not!’ This vigorously from Joey.

‘What a dreadful idea, Grizel!’ Thus Gisela.

While Herr Marani said decidedly, ‘Oh, I should not expect it!’

‘Still she might be,’ persisted Grizel. ‘We’ve met her once already.’

‘Then, if she should indeed be there, I shall trust you to say nothing, do nothing that may upset her,’ said the Austrian gravely.

‘Supposing she spits at us again? ‘ suggested Joey. ‘She might!’

‘Then you will remember that you are English, and an Englishwoman is not revengeful. Gisela and Bette, you must be careful of what you say. I do not wish a disturbance which might mean that we could not have our coffee at the
Gasthaus
.’

‘And here we are!’ exclaimed Bette. ‘We will remember, Onkel.’

They jumped down as the carriage drew up before the inn, and Joey at once gave eager attention to the scrolls which were painted above the doorway in green and gold; while Herr Marani gave orders about the coffee to a pretty dark-eyed girl who had come out on hearing the noise of the wheels.