Rome once?" said the Interviewer.

"For some years. Perhaps you have been there yourself?"

The Interviewer said he had never been there yet, but he hoped he should
go there, one of these years, "suppose you studied art and antiquities
while you were there?" he continued.

"Everybody who goes to Rome must learn something of art and antiquities.
Before you go there I advise you to review Roman history and the classic
authors. You had better make a study of ancient and modern art, and
not have everything to learn while you are going about among ruins, and
churches, and galleries. You know your Horace and Virgil well, I take it
for granted?"

The Interviewer hesitated. The names sounded as if he had heard them.
"Not so well as I mean to before going to Rome," he answered. "May I ask
how long you lived in Rome?"

"Long enough to know something of what is to be seen in it. No one
should go there without careful preparation beforehand. You are familiar
with Vasari, of course?"

The Interviewer felt a slight moisture on his forehead. He took out his
handkerchief. "It is a warm day," he said. "I have not had time to read
all--the works I mean to. I have had too much writing to do, myself, to
find all the time for reading and study I could have wished."

"In what literary occupation have you been engaged, if you will pardon
my inquiry? said Maurice.

"I am connected with the press. I understood that you were a man of
letters, and I hoped I might have the privilege of hearing from your own
lips some account of your literary experiences."

"Perhaps that might be interesting, but I think I shall reserve it
for my autobiography. You said you were connected with the press. Do I
understand that you are an author?"

By this time the Interviewer had come to the conclusion that it was a
very warm day. He did not seem to be getting hold of his pitcher by the
right handle, somehow. But he could not help answering Maurice's very
simple question.

"If writing for a newspaper gives one a right to be called an author, I
may call myself one. I write for the 'People's Perennial and Household
Inquisitor'."

"Are you the literary critic of that well-known journal, or do you
manage the political column?"

"I am a correspondent from different places and on various matters of
interest."

"Places you have been to, and people you have known?"

"Well, yes,-generally, that is. Sometimes I have to compile my
articles."

"Did you wri