e goes free."

"He always goes free, Dan, here or elsewhere."

"Why, we'd have lynched him in America."

"That's possible. We are such an impulsive race," ironically. "Yes, no
doubt we'd have lynched him; and these foreigners would have added
another ounce of fact to their belief that we are still barbarians."

"I hadn't thought of that," Merrihew admitted. Till now he had never
cared particularly whether a foreigner's opinion was favorable or not.

"No, but when you start for home you will always think of it. Our
reporters demand of the foreigner, barely he has stepped ashore, what he
thinks of the United States; and then nearly every one he meets helps to
form the opinion that we are insufferably underbred. Ours is not studied
incivility; it is worse than that; it is downright carelessness."

"I am beginning to see things differently. When the concierge tips his
hat, I tip mine. Since Giovanni is gone, suppose we pack up? There's
little to do, as the trunks are as we left them. But I say, how is it
that all these _carabinieri_ we see are so tall? The Neapolitan is
invariably short and thick-set."

"They come from the north as far as Domo d'Ossola; mountaineers. Italy
has a good policy regarding her military police. The Neapolitan is sent
north and the Venetian and Tuscan south, out of reach of family ties and
feuds. Thus, there is never any tug between duty and friendship. The
truth is, the Italian is less inclined toward duty than toward
friendship. This isolation makes the _carabinieri_ the right hand of the
army, and no other soldier in Europe is half so proud of his uniform,
not even the German. The people smile as they pass, you will notice
always in pairs; but when they are in trouble, these weather-vane
people, they fly straight to the _carabinieri_. Imagine the cocksureness
and insolence we'd have suffered from two New York policemen, had we
found them in our homes! Oh, I have a soft spot for the _carabinieri_.
You will find no brigands in Italy now; that is because the
_carabinieri_ are everywhere, silent, watchful, on highways, in the
mountains, in all villages and in all stations. I have never seen one of
them ogle a woman. And never ask them where your hotel is, or the
station, or such and such a street. They will always tell you, but they
secretly resent it."

"I'll remember; but so far as I'm concerned, they'd have an easy time of
it. Why, I couldn't ask a question in billboard Italian. Now, out