he bread and salt of the Arab is not offered to you--or, if offered
at all, appears in the shape of such dangerously acid lemonade or
such weak tea, it is best avoided. Every year there are dances at the
Casino dei Nobili, during the Carnival, and there are veglioni, or
balls, at the theatre, where ladies go masked and in dominoes, but
do not dance; but these annual dissipations are paid for by ticket.
A general reception, therefore, including dancing, supper, and
champagne, _gratis_, was an event.

The Orsetti Palace, a huge square edifice of reddish-gray stone, with
overtopping roof, four tiers of lofty windows, and a broad arched
entrance, or portone, with dark-green doors, stands in the street
of San Michele. You pass it, going from the railway-station to the
city-gate (where the Lucchese lions keep guard), and the road leads
onward to the peaked mountains over Spezia.

On the evening of the ball the entire street of San Michele was hung
with Chinese lanterns, arranged in festoons. Opposite the entrance
shone a gigantic star of gas. The palace itself was a blaze of
light. As the night was warm, every window was thrown open;
chandeliers--scintillating like jeweled fountains--hung from the
ceilings; wax-lights innumerable, in gilded sconces, were grouped upon
the walls; crimson-silk curtains cast a ruddy glare across the street,
and the sound of harps and violins floated through the night air. The
crowd of beggars and idlers, generally gathered in the street, saw so
much that they might be considered to "assist," in an independent
but festive capacity, at the entertainment from outside. Matches were
hawked about for the convenience of the male portion of this
extempore assembly, and fruit in baskets was on sale for the women.
"Cigars--cigars of quality!"--"Good fruit--ripe fruit!" were cries
audible even in the ballroom; and a fine aroma of coarse tobacco
mounted rapidly upward to the illuminated windows.

Within the archway groups of servants were ranged in the Orsetti
livery. Also a magnificent personage, not to be classed with any of
the other domestics, wearing a silver chain with a key passed across
his breast. The personage called a major-domo, in the discharge of
his duty, divested the ladies of their shawls, and arranged their
draperies.

All this was witnessed with much glee by the plebs outside--the men
smoking, the women eating and talking. As the guests arrived in rapid
succession, the plebs pressed m