any inquiries, for I did not know the name of the
Square. At last it began to be very sultry; the sun's rays darted down
upon the pavement like burning arrows, people crept into their houses,
the blinds everywhere were closed, and the street became once more
silent and dead. I threw myself down in despair in front of a fine,
large house with a balcony resting upon pillars and affording a deep
shade, and surveyed, first the quiet city, which looked absolutely
weird in its sudden noonday solitude, and anon the deep blue,
perfectly cloudless sky, until, tired out, I fell asleep. I dreamed
that I was lying in a lonely green meadow near my native village; a
warm summer rain was falling and glittering in the sun, which was just
setting behind the mountains, and whenever the raindrops fell upon the
grass they turned into beautiful, bright flowers, so that I was soon
covered with them.

What was my astonishment when I awoke to find a quantity of beautiful,
fresh flowers lying upon me and beside me! I sprang up, but could see
nothing unusual, except that in the house above me there was a window
filled with fragrant shrubs and flowers, behind which a parrot talked
and screamed incessantly. I picked up the scattered flowers, tied them
together, and stuck the nosegay in my button-hole. Then I began to
discourse with the parrot; it amused me to see him get up and down in
his gilded cage with all sorts of odd twists and turns of his head,
and always stepping awkwardly over his own toes. But before I was
aware of it he was scolding me for a _furfante_! Even though it were
only a senseless bird, it irritated me. I scolded him back; we both
got angry; the more I scolded in German, the more he abused me in
Italian.

Suddenly I heard some one laughing behind me. I turned quickly, and
perceived the painter of the morning. "What nonsense are you at now!"
he said. "I have been waiting for you for half an hour. The air has
grown cooler: we will go to a garden in the suburbs where you will
find several fellow-countrymen, and perhaps learn something further of
the German Countess."

I was charmed with this proposal, and we set out immediately, the
parrot screaming out abuse of me as I left him.

After we had walked for a long while outside of the city, ascending by
a narrow, stony pathway an eminence dotted with villas and vineyards,
we reached a small garden very high up, where several young men and
maidens were sitting in the open air ab