on B---- and his wife. We now sit all around the brazier;
both wife and husband being, for some time, loud in their praises, which
were somewhat extravagant! "It was a divine sermon--St Paul could not
have preached a better"--when the good man hopes it may, by God's
blessing, do good, politely acknowledges the compliment implied in our
regrets that we had not been of the auditory, and then rises to look
round, Signor B---- doing the honours, at the curiosities of the shop;
at the sight of several objects of virtu, he expresses, somewhat
naively, great pleasure--would like to have seen more, but has another
sermon to deliver in St Jacomo--the bell is ringing!--he must say _idio_
at once. As he makes his exit, (Madame kisses his hand first,) two other
visitors present themselves; the one a young Roman, who comes to console
her; the other a young English nobleman, who comes to buy in haste, and
will have to repent at leisure afterwards. In five minutes, Madame seems
to have entirely forgotten her sister; B---- his wife! The one is
receiving comfort in compliment; the other, in cash! Hush! Surely we
heard Lord A---- ask if that vamped old vase, which will fall some day
to pieces, was _antique_; and B----assert that it was! Why, the paint is
scarcely dry on its sides! Lord A----'s unlucky eye lights upon a bust,
which, when he gets it over to England, he may match at the stone-mason's
in the New Road, and at half-price--_two_ words, _three_ syllables,
and the purchase is made "_Chi?_" Whose bust is it? "Cicero's," of course!
"Quanto," what's the price of it? "Twenty Napoleons!" You old rogue B----!
you are safe in sending it to Terny's, _packed_; for, if it should be
seen, you might have to refund the purchase-money. _Necdum finitus?_
Another bust tempts him; he inquires, and finds it is a _Jove_--a Jove!
and is

"Jupiter, haec nec labra moves, quum mittere vocem
Debueras, vel _marmoreus_, vel aheneus?
... Quod nullum discrimen habendum est
Effigies inter vestras, statuamque Bathylli?"

And this too, he buys for twenty Napoleons more; and having paid the
purchase-money, away goes the possessor of Jupiter, and at the same
juncture away goes the Cavaliere--each perfectly satisfied with his
visit.

"_Molto intelligente_, that countryman of yours," said B----, spelling
his card. "He seems to take things very much upon trust," said we. "'Tis
a pity he don't understand Italian or French better. Otherwise, I
_might_ ha