One day
the grand duke paid him a visit at his villa of Careggi, and in the
course of it proposed a walk up the slope of the Apennines through
some fine woods that made a part of Mr. Sloane's property. They went
together, enjoying the delightful walk through the woods over a dry
and excellently well-made road, where everything betokened care and
good tending, till all of a sudden, near the top of the hill they were
climbing, they came to a place where the good road suddenly ended, and
the path beyond was all bog and the wood utterly uncared for, so that
their walk evidently had to come to an end there, and they would have
to retrace their steps.
"Why, Sloane, how is this? This is not like your way of doing things.
Why did you stop short in your good work?" said the grand duke, as
they stood at the limit of the good road, looking out at the slough
beyond them.
"In truth, Your Highness, I was sorry that the good road should break
off here, but the circumstance is easily explained. Here ends the
property of your humble servant, and there begins the property of Your
Royal Highness," said Sloane with a low bow.
"Ha! Is it so? Well, then, I'll tell you what you shall do. You shall
_buy_ it, Sloane, and then you can finish your job," returned the
grand duke.
It is very doubtful whether the Tuscans would have approved of the
_liberality_ of the grand duke's expenditure if he had manifested it,
as his neighbor-sovereigns did, by expending his revenues on
multitudes of show-soldiers.
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