And on the other side of the street, a little higher up, before reaching the Villa Bonaparte, stood Count Prada's little palazzo.
* The name--Twentieth September Street--was given to the thoroughfare to commemorate the date of the occupation of Rome by Victor Emmanuel's army .-- Trans.
After discharging his driver, Pierre for a moment remained somewhat embarrassed.

The door was open, and he entered the vestibule; but, as at the mansion in the Via Giulia, no door porter or servant was to be seen.
So he had to make up his mind to ascend the monumental stairs, which with their marble balustrades seemed to be copied, on a smaller scale, from those of the Palazzo Boccanera.

And there was much the same cold bareness, tempered, however, by a carpet and red door-hangings, which contrasted vividly with the white stucco of the walls.

The reception-rooms, sixteen feet high, were on the first floor, and as a door chanced to be ajar he caught a glimpse of two _salons_, one following the other, and both displaying quite modern richness, with a profusion of silk and velvet hangings, gilt furniture, and lofty mirrors reflecting a pompous assemblage of stands and tables.

And still there was nobody, not a soul, in that seemingly forsaken abode, which exhaled nought of woman's presence.