o 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 to foreign
cities, but loved Milan, and lived in it free and happy as an earwig in a
ripe apricot. The circumvallation of Milan gave her elbow-room enough,
owing to the absence of forts all round--'which knock one's funny-bone in
Verona, signora.' Beppo presented a pure smile upon a simple bow for
acceptance. 'The air of Milan,' he went on, with less confidence under
Laura's steady gaze, and therefore more forcing of his candour--'the
sweet air of Milan gave her a deep chestful, so that she could hold her
note as long as five lengths of a fiddle-bow:--by the body of Sant'
Ambrogio, it was true!' Beppo stretched out his arm, and chopped his hand
edgeways five testificatory times on the shoulder-ridge. 'Ay, a hawk
might fly from St. Luke's head (on the Duomo) to the stone on San Primo
over Como, while the signorina held on her note! You listened, you
gasped--you thought of a poet in his dungeon, and suddenly, behold, his
chains are struck off!--you thought of a gold-shelled tortoise making his
pilgrimage to a beatific shrine!--you thought--you knew not what you
thought!'

Here Beppo sank into a short silence of ecstasy, and wakening from it, as
with an ardent liveliness: 'The signora has heard her sing? How to
describe it! Tomorrow night will be a feast for Milan.'

'You think that the dilettanti of Milan will have a delight to-morrow
night?' said Laura; but seeing that the man's keen ear had caught note of
the ironic reptile under the flower, and unwilling to lose further time,
she interdicted his reply.

'Beppo, my good friend, you are a complete Italian--you waste your
cleverness. You will gratify me by remembering that I am your
countrywoman. I have already done you a similar favour by allowing you to
air your utmost ingenuity. The reflection that it has been to no purpose
will neither scare you nor instruct you. Of that I am quite assured. I
speak solely to suit the present occasion. Now, don't seek to elude me.
If you are a snake with friends as well as enemies, you are nothing but a
snake. I ask you--you are not compelled to answer, but I forbid you to
lie-