tion that I did, no matter how trifling,
and each looking towards the other for his opinion at every touch and
turn. They took great interest in my ablutions, for they seemed to have
doubted whether I was in all respects human like themselves. They even
laid hold of my arms and overhauled them, and expressed approval when
they saw that they were strong and muscular. They now examined my legs,
and especially my feet. When they desisted they nodded approvingly to
each other; and when I had combed and brushed my hair, and generally made
myself as neat and well arranged as circumstances would allow, I could
see that their respect for me increased greatly, and that they were by no
means sure that they had treated me with sufficient deference--a matter
on which I am not competent to decide. All I know is that they were very
good to me, for which I thanked them heartily, as it might well have been
otherwise.

For my own part, I liked them and admired them, for their quiet
self-possession and dignified ease impressed me pleasurably at once.
Neither did their manner make me feel as though I were personally
distasteful to them--only that I was a thing utterly new and unlooked
for, which they could not comprehend. Their type was more that of the
most robust Italians than any other; their manners also were eminently
Italian, in their entire unconsciousness of self. Having travelled a
good deal in Italy, I was struck with little gestures of the hand and
shoulders, which constantly reminded me of that country. My feeling was
that my wisest plan would be to go on as I had begun, and be simply
myself for better or worse, such as I was, and take my chance
accordingly.

I thought of these things while they were waiting for me to have done
washing, and on my way back. Then they gave me breakfast--hot bread and
milk, and fried flesh of something between mutton and venison. Their
ways of cooking and eating were European, though they had only a skewer
for a fork, and a sort of butcher's knife to cut with. The more I looked
at everything in the house, the more I was struck with its quasi-European
character; and had the walls only been pasted over with extracts from the
_Illustrated London News_ and _Punch_, I could have almost fancied myself
in a shepherd's hut upon my master's sheep-run. And yet everything was
slightly different. It was much the same with the birds and flowers on
the other side, as compared with the English one