rts?"

"No, sir; a very short time, indeed," said Ogden, drearily.

"You needn't sigh about it, stranger, though it is main dull in these
diggin's! Here's a people that don't understand human natur'. What I
mean, sir, is, human natur' means goin' ahead; doin' a somewhat your
father and your grandfather never so much as dreamt of. But what are
these critturs about? Jest showin' the great things that was done
centuries before they was born,--what pictures and statues and monuments
their own ancestors could make, and of which they are jest showmen,
nothing more!"

"The Arts are Italy's noblest inheritance," said Ogden, sententionsly.

"That ain't my platform, stranger. Civilization never got anything
from painters or sculptors. They never taught mankind to be truthful or
patient or self-denyin' or charitable. You may look at a bronze Hercules
till you 're black in the face, and it will never make you give a cent
to a lame cripple. I 'll go further again, stranger, and I 'll say that
there ain't anything has thrown so many stumblin'-blocks before
pro-gress as what you call the Arts, for there ain't the equal o' them
to make people idlers. What's all that loafing about galleries, I ask
ye, but the worst of all idling? If you want them sort of emotions, go
to the real article, sir. Look at an hospital, that's more life-like
than Gerard Dow and his dropsical woman,--ay, and may touch your heart,
belike, before you get away."

"Though your conversation interests me much, sir, you will pardon my
observing that I feel myself an intruder."

"No, you ain't; I'm jest in a talkin' humor, and I'd rather have _you_
than that Italian crittur, as don't understand me."

"Even the flattery of your observation, sir, cannot make me forget that
another object claims my attention."

"For I 've remarked," resumed Quackinboss, as if in continuation of his
speech, "that a foreigner that don't know English wearies after a while
in listenin', even though you 're tellin' him very interesting things."

"I perceive, sir," said Ogden, rising, "that I have certainly been
mistaken in the address. I was told that at the Palazzo Barsotti--"

"Well, you 're jest there; that's what they call this ramshackle old
crazy consarn. Their palaces, bein' main like their nobility, would be
all the better for a little washin' and smartenin' up."

"You can perhaps, however, inform me where Lord Agio-court _does_ live?"

"Well, he lives, as I may say, a lit