I left Palermo. I got there from Caltanissetta just
before the train from Palermo arrived, and the buffo was looking out of
the window. As soon as he saw me on the platform he got down and came to
me saying:

"Oh! I am so glad to see you again; now everything will be all right. I
have been wretched ever since you went away. I have not been able to eat
by night or to sleep by day for thinking of you. And this has been going
on for two whole months; but now I shall recover."

So we got into the train and pursued our journey.

"I see you have brought your great-coat," I said.

"Yes," he said, "if I am to be an English gentleman I shall have to wear
it in Catania."

"But won't it do if you carry it over your arm?" I inquired.

"No," he said, "because then they would see my other coat, and that is so
dilapidated they would suspect the truth."

"Your clothes are quite good enough for any English gentleman anywhere,"
I pointed out.

"They are not so good as yours," he replied; "the teatrino is dirty and
they soon wear out. My great-coat appears to be fresh because I seldom
put it on. I shall use it in Catania to conceal the shabbiness of my
other clothes."

"You need not be so particular. My father when he travelled in Italy did
not pay so much attention to his personal appearance."

"You have never told me about your father. Did he travel for some
English firm? Was it tiles? or perhaps sewing-machines? They pay
better, I believe."

"He did not travel for any firm. He was a barrister, an avvocato, and
travelled for recreation during the Long Vacation. I can tell you how he
used to dress, because just before I left London I copied part of a
letter he wrote to my mother, and I have it in my pocket."

This is the extract from my father's letter which I read to the buffo; it
is dated Hotel des Bergues, Geneva, 1 October, 1861:

Reading the _Times_ of Friday this morning I saw a letter signed G.U.
which I have no doubt is a mistake for J.U. and means John Unthank
and which signifies he and his family are in Paris. It is a letter
complaining of the shabby costume of Englishmen and is a foolish
letter but it will have the effect of making me furnish myself with a
new wideawake or something of that sort at Paris for my present
wideawake has got another hole in it and is really very bad though I
don't know why it should wear so fast as I take great care of it and
am rath