d
white, and it had green Venetian shutters which gave it a cool and
pleasant air; and through one of the open windows floated a sound of
merry voices, in which a woman's laugh was predominant.

The double doors stood open and through these there emerged a moment
after our halting a tall, thin man whose restless eyes surveyed us
swiftly, whose thin-lipped mouth smiled a greeting to Messer Arcolano
in the pause he made before hurrying down the steps with a slip-slop of
ill-fitting shoes.

This was Messer Astorre Fifanti, the pedant under whom I was to study,
and with whom I was to take up my residence for some months to come.

Seeing in him one who was to be set in authority over me, I surveyed him
with the profoundest interest, and from that instant I disliked him.

He was, as I have said, a tall, thin man; and he had long hands
that were very big and bony in the knuckles. Indeed they looked like
monstrous skeleton hands with a glove of skin stretched over them. He
was quite bald, save for a curly grizzled fringe that surrounded the
back of his head, on a level with his enormous ears, and his forehead
ran up to the summit of his egg-shaped head. His nose was pendulous and
his eyes were closely set, with too crafty a look for honesty. He wore
no beard, and his leathery cheeks were blue from the razor. His age
may have been fifty; his air was mean and sycophantic. Finally he was
dressed in a black gaberdine that descended to his knees, and he ended
in a pair of the leanest shanks and largest feet conceivable.

To greet us he fawned and washed his bony hands in the air.

"You have made a safe journey, then," he purred. "Benedicamus Dominum!"

"Deo gratias!" rumbled the fat priest, as he heaved his rotundity from
the saddle with the assistance of one of the grooms.

They shook hands, and Fifanti turned to survey me for the second time.

"And this is my noble charge!" said he. "Salve! Be welcome to my house,
Messer Agostino."

I got to earth, accepted his proffered hand, and thanked him.

Meanwhile the grooms were unpacking my baggage, and from the house came
hurrying an elderly servant to receive it and convey it within doors.

I stood there a little awkwardly, shifting from leg to leg, what time
Doctor Fifanti pressed Arcolano to come within and rest; he spoke, too,
of some Vesuvian wine that had been sent him from the South and upon
which he desired the priest's rare judgment.

Arcolano hesitated, and his gl