igi has so many stories about the grand _forestieri_ and
all their strange caprices, and then Marc Antonio and his wife come in,
and he tells us about the ladies and gentlemen he drives out in his
_vettura_, and she describes the fine linen she makes for her ladies.
Well, if signori live for nothing else, they give us a great deal of
pleasure.

Si, signora, we still live in the same apartment in the Borgo Santo
Jacopo, on the south side of the Arno. I would not go away, because when
my husband is at the _albergo_ I can look across the river and think
that he is there. Very often when I sit up late at my work, and all the
rest are asleep and Luigi at the _albergo_, I look over the river, and
the lights at the "Stella" seem to keep me company. Luigi, too, watches
my light. I always sit by my window and keep my lamp there, so that he
may know how late I work. Well, here is the signora's gown quite
finished, and the end of my poor story. So good-night, signora, and may
the good Lord send the signora a happy New Year!

MARIE L. THOMPSON.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] This true history--a picture, in its general features, of thousands
of lives--is given, as nearly as possible, exactly as it fell from the
lips of the narrator.

OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.

Tourgeneff's Idea of Bazaroff.

A volume containing several hundred of Tourgeneff's letters was
published last winter in St. Petersburg by the "Society for Assisting
Impecunious Authors and Scholars." It is to be followed by a second, and
the proceeds are to be devoted to the foundation of a "Tourgeneff
Memorial Fund." The whole collection will, we may hope, be translated
into English. The following extracts relate chiefly to the character
which is considered by many readers his finest creation, but which, as
is well known, made him for a time very unpopular in Russia:

BOUGIVAL, August 18, 1871.

DEAR A. P.,--Although you do not ask me for a reply, and do not seem to
wish for one, yet the confidence which you have reposed in me and the
feeling of sympathy and respect which you have awakened in me make it my
duty to say a few words to you about your letter.... What? You say, too,
that I meant to caricature the youth of Russia in Bazaroff? you repeat
this--pardon the frankness of the expression--nonsensical accusation?
Bazaroff,--this is my favorite child, for whose sake I quarrelled with
Katkoff, upon whom I used all the color at my co