see you again in such good
estate!"

"But whom have I the honour of addressing?"

"Don't you recollect me? I am Momolo, formerly gondolier at Venice."

"Have you entered holy orders, then?"

"Not at all, but here everyone wears the cassock. I am the first
scopatore (sweeper) of His Holiness the Pope."

"I congratulate you on your appointment, but you mustn't mind me
laughing."

"Laugh as much as you like. My wife and daughters laugh when I put on the
cassock and bands, and I laugh myself, but here the dress gains one
respect. Come and see us."

"Where do you live?"

"Behind the Trinity of Monti; here's my address."

"I will come to-night."

I went home delighted with this meeting, and determined to enjoy the
evening with my Venetian boatman. I got my brother to come with me, and I
told him how the Pope had received me.

The Abbe Winckelmann came in the afternoon and informed me that I was
fortunate enough to be high in favour with his cardinal, and that the
book I had sent him was very valuable; it was a rare work, and in much
better condition than the Vatican copy.

"I am commissioned to pay you for it."

"I have told his eminence that it was a present."

"He never accepts books as presents, and he wants yours for his own
library; and as he is librarian of the Vatican Library he is afraid lest
people might say unpleasant things."

"That's very well, but I am not a bookseller; and as this book only cost
me the trouble of accepting it, I am determined only to sell it at the
same price. Pray ask the cardinal to honour me by accepting it."

"He is sure to send it back to you."

"He can if he likes, but I will send back his funeral oration, as I am
not going to be under an obligation to anyone who refuses to take a
present from me."

Next morning the eccentric cardinal returned me my Pandects, and I
immediately returned his funeral oration, with a letter in which I
pronounced it a masterpiece of composition, though I laid barely glanced
over it in reality. My brother told me I was wrong, but I did not trouble
what he said, not caring to guide myself by his rulings.

In the evening my brother and I went to the 'scopatore santissimo', who
was expecting me, and had announced me to his family as a prodigy of a
man. I introduced my brother, and proceeded to a close scrutiny of the
family. I saw an elderly woman, four girls, of whom the eldest was
twenty-four, two small boys, and above all universal ugli