nting couriers, of paintings for sale, carriages for sale or
for hire,--and all such things.

Piale's establishment contains a number of different rooms. The first
that Rollo entered on arriving at the place was the bookstore. This was
a small room. There was a desk at one end, where a clerk was sitting.
There were shelves filled with books all around the room, and a large
table in the centre, which was also covered with books arranged in tiers
one above the other in a sloping direction. There were several doors
leading off from this apartment, one of which led to a room where a
circulating library was kept, and another to the reading room.

When Rollo entered the bookstore, he saw several groups of visitors
there. There were two or three ladies looking over the books on the
shelves. There was a group of gentlemen standing near the desk, talking
together, with a paper in their hands which seemed to contain a list of
names. Just as Rollo entered, a carriage drove up to the door, and two
ladies dismounted from it and came in. Rollo's attention was first
attracted to these two ladies. One of them, on entering, accosted the
clerk, and asked to look at the register. The clerk immediately gave the
two ladies seats at a side table, where there was a large book full of
names and addresses. The ladies sat down, and began to look over the
book. They had just arrived from Naples, and they wished to know what
friends and acquaintances of theirs there were in town.

Rollo began to examine the books on the table, or counter, in the middle
of the room, and while doing so he happened to pass near the gentlemen
that were looking at the paper.

"We want twelve," said one of the gentlemen, "and we have got only
nine."

"Yes," said the other, "we want three more. It must be that there are a
great many in town who would like to go, if we could only find them
out."

Rollo's attention was immediately arrested by these words. It was
obvious that the gentlemen were forming a party to go somewhere, or to
see something, and he felt quite confident that his uncle George would
like to join them.

"At any rate," said he to himself, "_I_ should like to go, wherever it
is."

So Rollo summoned courage to accost the persons who were consulting
together, and to ask them if they wished to find some gentlemen to make
up a party.

"Gentlemen or ladies either," said one of them, "no matter which. We are
making up a party to go and see the statues