ng-places, archways, stables, vineyards--was baited by dogs,
answered in profoundly unintelligible Neapolitan, from behind lonely
locked doors, in cracked female voices, quaking with fear; could hear of
no such Englishman or any Englishman. By-and-by I came upon a
Polenta-shop in the clouds, where an old Frenchman, with an umbrella
like a faded tropical leaf (it had not rained for six weeks) was staring
at nothing at all, with a snuff-box in his hand. To him I appealed
concerning the Signor Larthoor.

"'Sir,' said he, with the sweetest politeness, 'can you speak French?'

"'Sir,' said I, 'a little.'

"'Sir,' said he, 'I presume the Signor Lootheere'--you will observe that
he changed the name according to the custom of his country--'is an
Englishman.'

"I admitted that he was the victim of circumstances and had that
misfortune.

"'Sir,' said he, 'one word more. _Has_ he a servant with a wooden leg?'

"'Great Heaven, sir,' said I, 'how do I know? I should think not, but it
is possible.'

"'It is always,' said the Frenchman, 'possible. Almost all the things of
the world are always possible.'

"'Sir,' said I--you may imagine my condition and dismal sense of my own
absurdity by this time--'that is true.'

"He then took an immense pinch of snuff, wiped the dust off his
umbrella, led me to an arch commanding a wonderful view of the Bay of
Naples, and pointed deep into the earth from which I had mounted.

"'Below there, near the lamp, one finds an Englishman, with a servant
with a wooden leg. It is always possible that he is the Signor
Lootheere.'

"I had been asked at six, and it was now getting on for seven. I went
down again in a state of perspiration and misery not to be described,
and without the faintest hope of finding the place. But as I was going
down to the lamp, I saw the strangest staircase up a dark corner, with a
man in a white waistcoat (evidently hired) standing on the top of it
fuming. I dashed in at a venture, found it was the place, made the most
of the whole story, and was indescribably popular."

"Indescribably popular" Dickens was almost every place he went. And in
1858 there came to him increased popularity by reason of a new venture.
In this year he began his public readings from his own works, which
brought him in immense sums of money. Through England, Scotland, Ireland
and the United States he journeyed, reading, as only he could read,
scenes humorous and pathetic from his great novels,