c as the Neapolitans or Venetians or even as the
Tuscans; but once in the same pleasance I saw a controversy between
school-boys which was carried on with an animation full of beauty and
finish. They argued back and forth, not violently, but vividly, and one
whom I admired most enforced his reasons with charming gesticulations,
whirling from his opponents with quick turns of his body and many a
renunciatory retirement, and then facing about and advancing again upon
the unconvinced. I decided that his admirable drama had been studied
from the histrionics of his mother in domestic scenes; and, if I had
been one of those other boys, I should have come over to his side
instantly.

The Roman manners vary from Roman to Roman, just as our own manners, if
we had any, would vary from New-Yorker to New-Yorker. Zola thinks the
whole population is more or less spoiled with the conceit of Rome's
ancient greatness, and shows it. One could hardly blame them if this
were so; but I did not see any strong proof of it, though I could have
imagined it on occasion. I should say rather that they had a republican
simplicity of manner, and I liked this better in the shop people and
work people than the civility overflowing into servility which one finds
among the like folk, for instance, in England. I heard complaints from
foreigners that the old-time deference of the lower classes was gone,
but I did not miss it. Once in a cafe, indeed, the waiter spoke to me in
_Voi_ (you) instead of _Lei_ (lordship), but the Neapolitans often do
this, and I took it for a friendly effort to put me at my ease in a
strange tongue with a more accustomed form. We were trying to come
together on the kind of tea I wanted, but we failed, if I wanted it
strong, for I got it very weak and tepid. I thought another day that it
would be stronger if I could get it brought hotter, but it was not, and
so I went no more to a place where I was liable to be called You instead
of Lordship and still get weak tea. I think this was a mistake of mine
and a loss, for at that cafe I saw some old-fashioned Italian types
drinking their black coffee at afternoon tea-time out of tumblers, and
others calling for pen and ink and writing letters, and ladies sweetly
asking for newspapers and reading them there; and I ought to have
continued coming to study them.

As to my conjectures of republican quality in the Romans, I had explicit
confirmation from a very intelligent Italian who said o