As Mr. Alboni gazed upon each familiar object, surrounding his
beautiful villa, he was greatly surprised to find everything in the same
state of preservation as when he had last beheld his home, once so dear;
instead of an air of desolation, everything falling to decay, as would
be a natural consequence attendant upon the long absence of the family,
the scrupulous care and attention of some interested one, was apparent
on all sides. Even the little ivied bower, which Mr. Sunderland had
arranged with his own hands, when he first smiled upon his beautiful
bride, was still in existence; and here did Natalie dream away many a
happy hour, during her stay in dear Florence.
The old man and his frugal wife, to whose keeping the premises had been
entrusted, and who occupied a small tenement upon the grounds, could
not have been more surprised if one had appeared to them from the dead,
than were they when Mr. Alboni stood in the door of their cottage.
"I told you his honor would come again!" said the woman, turning to her
husband; "but I was really afeared it mightn't be in our time; and as
we've no one to leave in our shoes, I'm of the 'pinion that the place
would've dropped off to some stranger.
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