ada_ and, with the inconsistency natural under the circumstances,
did not like it half so well.

No matter whether we got there early or late, the _Panada_ was always
full. As soon as we sat down we began our dinner by wiping our glasses,
plates, forks, spoons, and knives on our napkins, making such a habit of
it that I remember afterwards at a dinner-party in London catching
myself with my glass in my hand and stopping only just in time, while
Duveneck, on another occasion, got as far as the silver before he was
held up by the severe eye of his hostess. Probably it was because nobody
could hear what anybody said that everybody talked together. I cannot
recall a moment when stray musicians were not strumming on guitars and
mandolins, and the oyster man was not shrieking: "_Ostreche!_ _Fresche!
Ostreche!_" though nobody paid the least attention to him or ever bought
one of his oysters. And above the uproar was the continuous cry: "_Ecco
me! Vengo subito! Mezzo Verona! Due Calomai! Vengo subito! Ecco me!_" of
the waiters, who, though they never ceased to announce their coming,
were so slow to come that many diners brought a course or two in their
pockets to occupy them during the intervals.

The little Venetian at the next table was sure to produce a bunch of
radishes while he waited for his soup; on market days, when there was
more of a crowd than ever, few of the many baked potatoes eaten at
almost every table had seen the inside of the _Panada's_ oven; often the
shops that fill the Venetian _calli_ with the perpetual smell of frying
and where the brasses and the blue-and-white used to shine, were
patronized on the way--if dinner has to be collected in the streets, no
town, even in Italy, offers such facilities as Venice. From _Minestra_
to fruit and cheese, the Venetian in a few minutes' walk may pick up a
substantial dinner and carry it to the rooms or the street corner where
it is his habit to dine. Vance, the painter, who sometimes favoured us
at our table with his company, went further and, after he had taken off
his coat and put on his hat and emptied his pockets, seldom troubled the
establishment to provide him with more than a glass, a plate, a knife,
and a fork, for the price of a _quinto_ of Verona. His first, and as it
turned out his last, more extravagant order, was the event of the
season. The _padrone_ discussed it with him and a message was sent to
the cook that the dish was _di bistecca_. When it came it