rs_) Pony!

_Mrs W._ Ah, true, dear! Can you recommend me where to hire a pony for
my boy?

_Banker._ To be sure I can. (_Giving a card._) Here are the address
and terms of a man who lets them out either by the day or month.
Ahem!--would you like the money in gold or dollars?

_Mrs W._ I am much obliged. On one other subject perhaps you could
assist me. There really seems no one worth knowing here at present,
except a family who always reside at the baths, and often receive, and
have written a book, and are quite celebrated. I should like--

_Banker._ (_Hurriedly._) Really, that I fear I cannot manage for you.
The arrow-root--

_Mrs W._ (_Rising._) Oh, very well. It is late, I am afraid. I need
not trouble you to-day for money, I believe. I brought sufficient from
Florence for the present; we will wait till the exchange is more
favourable.

_Banker._ (_Heartily._) No matter; you can have it whenever you
please. I shall come this afternoon and put all in order for you.

_Mrs W._ Thank you. Good-morning. (_Shakes hands, and exit._)

In this manner, and through similar interruptions, much of the
banker's time is taken up, till near three o'clock, which is the
general dinner-hour at the baths. Many people are supplied with this
renovating meal from the Europa Hotel at the Ponte, which is presided
over by one of the most honest, obliging, indefatigable, and
enterprising landlords in existence. Not only has he the direction of
three hotels at the Ponte, two of them off-shoots from the parent
Europa, but he undertakes the herculean task of daily sending forth
thirty-six dinners to different families; the whole requiring a
combination of artistic resource and fertility of intellect that fully
justifies his right to the appellation bestowed on him by the
ex-duke--that of 'the Napoleon of inn-keepers.' These repasts are
conveyed in large tin boxes, containing warm embers, on which are
placed the various dishes of which the dinner is composed; and they
are carried to their destinations on the heads of divers active,
nimble-footed _marmitons_. As the hour of three approaches, numbers of
these emissaries are seen gliding swiftly along the roads; and I never
yet encountered one without comparing him to the slave who appeared at
the bidding of the Genius of the Lamp, and bore a sumptuous banquet to
the presence of Aladin.

After thus recruiting the inward man, the whole population of the
baths seem suddenly to kindle into