m me to
it and from it to me. I thought he was going to propose for it. At last
he spoke--it was but a word; but his emphasis and accent made my ears
tingle. '_Excellent!_' said he; but I was reassured on hearing him add,
'Casanuova has the luck of St Angelo, and nobody ever took him in.'
Relieved by this announcement, I could now afford to be modest, and said
it was but by accident that I had _first_ seen the coin. '_Not first_,
Casanuova," said the prince--'but second, I _believe_. I saw it
_first_.' '_You!_' said I, aghast; 'you saw this coin, and did not buy
it?' '_Costava!_ it cost too much; besides, to tell you the truth,
_Coco, who had just made it_, told me it was expressly intended for the
cabinet of _quel dottissimo suo amico J. Battista Casanuova_.'" "'Tis
all true," said Coco, rubbing his hands; "and I believe I can do almost
any thing I _like_ with any of them." "Except not to tell lies, and not
to impose upon antiquaries?" "_Caro lei!_ these are the very things I
like to _do most_, and do accordingly."

"What has become of Coco?" asked we of an _orefice, three years later_,
on finding ourselves a second time in Naples, and nothing doubting, as
he had not been to visit us, that he was doing Baron Trenck, and
exercising his ingenuity in prison. We were surprised, therefore, to
learn that he now kept a smart shop, and was a sort of joint householder
with a respectable man, and that nothing particular had occurred to
tarnish his reputation for now nearly a year! The shop we had already
noticed as one of promise on the outside; for, as yet, we had not found
time to visit its interior. It stood half-way up the Toledo, on the left
hand side as you go to the Studii. Etruscan jars were painted on all the
shutters, and bits of statues and bas-reliefs _bossaged_ and projected
from the house front. In face of each window was an enormous shelving
tray, full of all sorts of odds and ends, from the Flood downwards, the
whole under protection of a strong iron _grillage_. In one corner of the
shop (we had _now_ gone forth to visit it) sat a pretty young woman, in
spectacles, reading Manzoni, or sleeping over him (the aforesaid
spectacles prevented our noticing which) as he lay open in her lap;
while on another chair, in the opposite corner, an old man, almost in
his dotage, looked wistfully round his shop, not suppressing an anxious
sigh when the scrutiny was done. In an inner room of _his_ palace--for
such, in derision of