se charmed him, and he liked its openness, the bold and
simple turn of its lines. He looked at the addresses without reading
them, with an artist's admiration.

They visited, that morning, Santa Maria Novella, where the Countess
Martin had already gone with Madame Marmet. But Miss Bell had reproached
them for not observing the beautiful Ginevra of Benci on a fresco of the
choir. "You must visit that figure of the morning in a morning light,"
said Vivian. While the poetess and Therese were talking together,
Dechartre listened patiently to Madame Marmet's conversation, filled
with anecdotes, wherein academicians dined with elegant women, and
shared the anxiety of that lady, much preoccupied for several days by
the necessity to buy a tulle veil. She could find none to her taste in
the shops of Florence.

As they came out of the church they passed the cobbler's shop. The good
man was mending rustic shoes. Madame Martin asked the old man whether he
was well, whether he had enough work for a living, whether he was happy.
To all these questions he replied with the charming affirmative of
Italy, the musical si, which sounded melodious even in his toothless
mouth. She made him tell his sparrow's story. The poor bird had once
dipped its leg in burning wax.

"I have made for my little companion a wooden leg out of a match, and he
hops upon my shoulder as formerly," said the cobbler.

"It is this good old man," said Miss Bell, "who teaches wisdom to
Monsieur Choulette. There was at Athens a cobbler named Simon, who wrote
books on philosophy, and who was the friend of Socrates. I have always
thought that Monsieur Choulette resembled Socrates."

Therese asked the cobbler to tell his name and his history. His name was
Serafino Stoppini, and he was a native of Stia. He was old. He had had
much trouble in his life.

He lifted his spectacles to his forehead, uncovering blue eyes, very
soft, and almost extinguished under their red lids.

"I have had a wife and children; I have none now. I have known things
which I know no more."

Miss Bell and Madame Marmet went to look for a veil.

"He has nothing in the world," thought Therese, "but his tools, a
handful of nails, the tub wherein he dips his leather, and a pot of
basilick, yet he is happy."

She said to him:

"This plant is fragrant, and it will soon be in bloom."

He replied:

"If the poor little plant comes into bloom it will die."

Therese, when she left him, placed