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( 188 )
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XXVIII.—LIFE IN TURIN.
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The lover of strong 1 contrasts would ha...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
( 188 )
( 188 )
Xxviii.—Life In Turin.
XXVIII . —LIFE IN TURIN . C Concluded fr _* o ? n page 123 . J
The Lover Of Strong 1 Contrasts Would Ha...
The lover of strong contrasts would have enjoyed the transition
from a morning- spent at the Valentino to an evening at the Palazzo 9 the circles of which include the most determined codini
in the kingdom . The palace itself would have been counted handsome even in a city more rich in handsome palaces , and all the
accessories were in keeping ; no slovenliness , no undemolished cobwebs , no traditional crevices . In all this its owners were
unconsciously doing homage to the spirit of the age . A . wide well-kept marble staircase , spacious vestibule and ante-rooms , servants in
liveries on which time had laid no hallowing touch , and a suite of drawing-rooms , sparingly lighted on account of the intense heat , but
profusely furnished with , all the modern variety of couches , ccmseuses , arm chairs , rocking chairs and divanslooking glassesnicknacks
, , , cushions , flowers , everything you could wish for , except books , of these I could not discover a trace .
In the last saloon were the guests , not formally invited , but the usual frequenters of the marquise ' s weekly reunions ; a dozen or so
of ladies , dressed in the heights of Parisian fashion , either talking French or Piedmontese ( the old _rSgime set their faces perversely
against Italian , which the government desires should . be generally in use ) and calling each other incessantly by their titlesand a score
, of men , all seemingly octogenarians . High in name and station , this assemblage comprised the most conspicuous partisans of the
old system , and by their ceremoniousness of manner , their profound courtesies and bows , carried me back , notwithstanding the vast
difference in the material accompaniments of the scene , to the antiquated conversazioni of the patricians of Romagna , in wliich so
many hours of my youth had been yawned away . The very way in which they greeted a bishop in violet stockings
was significant . Such reverence belongs not to the present order of things . In point of animation , however , if my reminiscences did
not deceive me , I should give the palm to the cdte _?* ies of central Italy . The talk flowed more geniallybarren of subjects as they
, were , than among these Turinese , with whom _jjeevish regrets for the past , bitter allusions to the present , and Cassandra-like forebodings ,
furnished the staple of conversation . Seated on the outskirts of a dreary semicircle of ilegantes _, some
fragments of the discourse of a group surrounding the "bishop occasionally reached my ears . It related to the opening of the
, Italian Waldensian or Valdese church in Genoa , the erection of
which they evidently considered an act of sacrilege in the govern-
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/44/
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