CHAPTER XX. EARLY YEARS AT TRIESTE. (1872-1875).
Turn thee from grief nor care a jot,
Commit thy needs to fate and lot,
Enjoy the present passing well,
And let the past be clean forgot.
For what so haply seemeth worse
Shall work thy weal as Allah wot;
Allah shall do whate'er he will,
And in his will oppose him not.
ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH(Burton's "Arabian Nights").
Isabel soon began to like Trieste; the place grew upon her, and later
she always spoke of it as "my beloved Trieste." She has left on record
in her journal her early impressions:
"Trieste is a town of threes. It has three quarters: the oldest, Citta
Vecchia, is filthy and antiquated in the extreme. It has three winds:
the _bora_, the winter wind, cold, dry, highly electrical, very exciting,
and so violent that sometimes the quays are roped, and some of the walls
have iron rails set in, to prevent people being blown into the sea;
the _sirocco_, the summer wind, straight from Africa, wet, warm, and
debilitating; and the _contraste_, which means the two blowing at once
and against each other, with all the disadvantages of both. It has
three races: Italians, Austrians, and Slavs. They are all ready to
cut each other's throats, especially the Italians and the Austrians;
and the result is that Trieste, wealthy though she is, wants all modern
improvements, simply because the two rival parties act like the two
bundles of hay in the fable, and between them the ass starves.
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