gnor
Pastrini, with the smile peculiar to the Italian speculator when
he confesses defeat; "I will do all I can, and I hope you will be
satisfied."

"And now we understand each other."

"When do you wish the carriage to be here?"

"In an hour."

"In an hour it will be at the door."

An hour after the vehicle was at the door; it was a hack conveyance
which was elevated to the rank of a private carriage in honor of the
occasion, but, in spite of its humble exterior, the young men would have
thought themselves happy to have secured it for the last three days of
the Carnival. "Excellency," cried the cicerone, seeing Franz approach
the window, "shall I bring the carriage nearer to the palace?"

Accustomed as Franz was to the Italian phraseology, his first impulse
was to look round him, but these words were addressed to him. Franz
was the "excellency," the vehicle was the "carriage," and the Hotel de
Londres was the "palace." The genius for laudation characteristic of the
race was in that phrase.

Franz and Albert descended, the carriage approached the palace; their
excellencies stretched their legs along the seats; the cicerone sprang
into the seat behind. "Where do your excellencies wish to go?" asked he.

"To Saint Peter's first, and then to the Colosseum," returned Albert.
But Albert did not know that it takes a day to see Saint Peter's, and a
month to study it. The day was passed at Saint Peter's alone. Suddenly
the daylight began to fade away; Franz took out his watch--it was
half-past four. They returned to the hotel; at the door Franz ordered
the coachman to be ready at eight. He wished to show Albert the
Colosseum by moonlight, as he had shown him Saint Peter's by daylight.
When we show a friend a city one has already visited, we feel the same
pride as when we point out a woman whose lover we have been. He was
to leave the city by the Porta del Popolo, skirt the outer wall, and
re-enter by the Porta San Giovanni; thus they would behold the Colosseum
without finding their impressions dulled by first looking on the
Capitol, the Forum, the Arch of Septimus Severus, the Temple of
Antoninus and Faustina, and the Via Sacra. They sat down to dinner.
Signor Pastrini had promised them a banquet; he gave them a tolerable
repast. At the end of the dinner he entered in person. Franz thought
that he came to hear his dinner praised, and began accordingly, but at
the first words he was interrupted. "Excellency," said Past