ith an unlimited number of statements. 'Questions, illustrious
signora, invariably put me on the defensive, and seem to cry for a
return thrust; and this I account for by the fact that my mother--the
blessed little woman now among the Saints!--was questioned, brows and
heels, by a ferruginously--faced old judge at the momentous period when
she carried me. So that, a question--and I show point; but ask me for a
statement, and, ah, signora!' Beppo delivered a sweep of the arm, as to
indicate the spontaneous flow of his tongue.

'I think,' said Laura, 'you have been a soldier, and a serving-man.'

'And a scene-shifter, most noble signora, at La Scala.'

'You accompanied the Signor Mertyrio to England when he was wounded?'

'I did.'

'And there you beheld the Signorina Vittoria, who was then bearing the
name of Emilia Belloni?'

'Which name she changed on her arrival in Italy, illustrious signora,
for that of Vittoria Campa--"sull' campo dells gloria"--ah! ah!--her own
name being an attraction to the blow-flies in her own country. All this
is true.'

'It should be a comfort to you! The Signor Mertyrio...'

Beppo writhed his person at the continuance of the questionings, and
obtaining a pause, he rushed into his statement: 'The Signor Mertyrio
was well, and on the point of visiting Italy, and quitting the
wave-embraced island of fog, of beer, of moist winds, and much money,
and much kindness, where great hearts grew. The signorina corresponded
with him, and with him only.'

'You know that, and will swear to it?' Laura exclaimed.

Beppo thereby receiving the cue he had commenced beating for, swore to
its truth profoundly, and straightway directed his statement to prove
that his mistress had not been politically (or amorously, if the
suspicion aimed at her in those softer regions) indiscreet or blameable
in any of her actions. The signorina, he said, never went out from her
abode without the companionship of her meritorious mother and his own
most humble attendance. He, Beppo, had a master and a mistress, the
Signor Mertyrio and the Signorina Vittoria. She saw no foreigners:
though--a curious thing!--he had seen her when the English language was
talked in her neighbourhood; and she had a love for that language: it
made her face play in smiles like an infant's after it has had suck and
is full;--the sort of look you perceive when one is dreaming and hears
music. She did not speak to foreigners. She did not care to go