will give you two pauls
if you will tell us. I am very curious to know this reason.'

'_Bene_, now the _prete_ came round to see me the other day; it was when
he purified the house with holy water, and he asked me a great many
questions, which I answered so artlessly, yes, so artlessly! whew! [here
Miss Rita smiled artfully.] Then he asked me all about you heretics, and
he told me you were all going to--be burned up, as soon as you died; for
the Inquisition couldn't do it for you in these degenerate days. After a
great deal more twaddle like this, I asked him why you heretics all had
such hard names, that we others never could speak them? Then he looked
mysterious, so! [here Miss Rita diabolically winked one eye,] and said
he: 'I will tell you, _per Bacco_! hush, it's because they are so
abominably wicked, never give any thing to OUR Church, never have no
holy water in their houses, never go to no confession, and are such
monsters generally, that their police are all the time busy trying to
catch them; but their names are so hard to speak that when the police go
and ask for them, nobody knows them, and so they get off; otherwise,
their country would have jails in it as large as St. Peter's, and they
would be full all the time!'

'H'm!' said Rocjean, 'I suppose you would be afraid to go to such
horrible countries, among such people?'

'Not I,' spoke Rita,'didn't Ida go to Paris, and didn't she come back to
Rome with such a magnificent silk dress, and gold watch, and such a
bonnet! all full of flowers, and lace, and ribbons? Oh! they don't eat
'nothing but maccaroni' there! And they don't have priests all the time
sneaking round to keep a poor girl from earning a little money honestly,
and haul her up before the police if her _carta di soggiorno_ [permit to
remain in Rome] runs out. I wish [here Rita stamped her foot and her
eyes flashed] Garibaldi would come here! Then you would see these black
crows flying, _Iddio giusto_! Then we would have no more of these
_arciprete_ making us pay them for every mouthful of bread we eat, or
wine we drink, or wood we burn.'

'Why,' said Caper, 'they don't keep the baker-shops, and wine-shops, and
wood-yards, do they?'

'No,' answered Rita, 'but they speculate in them, and Fra 'Tonelli makes
his cousins and so on inspectors; and they regulate the prices to suit
themselves, and make oh! such tremen-di-ous fortunes. [Here Rita opened
her eyes, and spread her hands, as if beholding