
In a sun‑kissed Italian resort, an American visitor named Matthew Lanfear finds himself delayed at the San Remo station, where a bewildering mix‑up with an eccentric old man leads him to a solitary young woman perched on a bench. She is poised, her veil fluttering in the evening breeze, and her calm confidence masks an unspoken urgency. Their brief exchange, sparked by a mistaken message, hints at a connection that feels both accidental and oddly inevitable.
The story unfolds against the backdrop of winding coastal roads, fragrant citrus groves, and the languid rhythm of early‑twentieth‑century travel. As Lanfear wrestles with his own curiosity and the subtle pull of the woman's mysterious demeanor, the narrative explores themes of chance encounters, the allure of foreign landscapes, and the tentative steps of a romance beginning to blossom. Listeners will be drawn into the gentle tension of a moment that could change both lives, all set within the elegant, sun‑drenched world of the Riviera.
Language
en
Duration
~4 hours (274K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beginners Projects, Ben Beasley and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Release date
2004-04-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1837–1920
A leading voice of American literary realism, this novelist and critic helped shape how late 19th-century fiction sounded and what it cared about. He is especially remembered for his work at The Atlantic Monthly and for novels like The Rise of Silas Lapham.
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