POURTH JOUIINEY. 



CHAPTER I. 



N 



ature had decked herself with 

 greater luxuriance than usual on 

 the Riviera this spring. From a 

 distance the gardens looked like 

 gigantic posies, and man^■ 

 of the houses were com- 

 pletely hidden under masses of 

 Bougainvillia, Heliotrope and 

 Roses. We drove from ^j 



Ventimiglia to Mentone; it was like passing under 

 triumphal arches, and as if the roads had been decorated 

 with garlands of flowers in our honour. Roses of all 

 colours covered the hedges, clambering to the tops of 

 the trees to unfold in fuller splendour and hanging down 



