he keys!"

But the old woman still had to wake up her daughters and kindle a
fire--but oh! she was such a long time about it--such a long, long
time. At last she opened the door and let poor Salvator in; but
scarcely had he crossed the threshold than, overcome by fatigue and
illness, he dropped on the floor as if dead. Happily the widow's son,
who generally lived at Tivoli, chanced to be at his mother's that night
He was at once turned out of his bed to make room for the sick guest,
which he willingly submitted to.

The old woman was very fond of Salvator, putting him, as far as his
artistic powers went, above all the painters in the world; and in
everything that he did she also took the greatest pleasure. She was
therefore quite beside herself to see him in this lamentable condition,
and wanted to run off to the neighbouring monastery to fetch her father
confessor, that he might come and fight against the adverse power of
the disease with consecrated candles or some powerful amulet or other.
On the other hand, her son thought it would be almost better to see
about getting an experienced physician at once, and off he ran there
and then to the Spanish Square, where he knew the distinguished Doctor
Splendiano Accoramboni dwelt. No sooner did the doctor learn that the
painter Salvator Rosa lay ill in the Via Bergognona than he at once
declared himself ready to call early and see the patient.

Salvator lay unconscious, struck down by a most severe attack of fever.
The old dame had hung up two or three pictures of saints above his bed,
and was praying fervently. The girls, though bathed in tears, exerted
themselves from time to time to get the sick man to swallow a few drops
of the cooling lemonade which they had made, whilst their brother, who
had taken his place at the head of the bed, wiped the cold sweat from
his brow. And so morning found them, when with a loud creak the door
opened, and the distinguished Doctor Splendiano Accoramboni entered the
room.

If Salvator had not been so seriously ill that the two girls' hearts
were melted in grief, they would, I think, for they were in general
frolicsome and saucy, have enjoyed a hearty laugh at the Doctor's
extraordinary appearance, instead of retiring shyly, as they did, into
the corner, greatly alarmed. It will indeed be worth while to describe
the outward appearance of the little man who presented himself at Dame
Caterina's in the Via Bergognona in the grey of the mor