not
the dupe of his disguise. Accordingly, I was well pleased to see him
enter my room in the morning as soon as I had opened my door. He came to
offer me the services of his young brother Petronio during my stay in
Ancona, instead of my engaging a valet de place. I willingly agreed to
the proposal, and sent Petronio to get coffee for all the family.

I asked Bellino to sit on my bed with the intention of making love to
him, and of treating him like a girl, but the two young sisters ran into
my room and disturbed my plans. Yet the trio formed before me a very
pleasing sight; they represented natural beauty and artless cheerfulness
of three different kinds; unobtrusive familiarity, theatrical wit,
pleasing playfulness, and pretty Bolognese manners which I witnessed for
the first time; all this would have sufficed to cheer me if I had been
downcast. Cecilia and Marina were two sweet rosebuds, which, to bloom in
all their beauty, required only the inspiration of love, and they would
certainly have had the preference over Bellino if I had seen in him only
the miserable outcast of mankind, or rather the pitiful victim of
sacerdotal cruelty, for, in spite of their youth, the two amiable girls
offered on their dawning bosom the precious image of womanhood.

Petronio came with the coffee which he poured out, and I sent some to the
mother, who never left her room. Petronio was a true male harlot by taste
and by profession. The species is not scare in Italy, where the offence
is not regarded with the wild and ferocious intolerance of England and
Spain. I had given him one sequin to pay for the coffee, and told him to
keep the change, and, to chew me his gratitude, he gave me a voluptuous
kiss with half-open lips, supposing in me a taste which I was very far
from entertaining. I disabused him, but he did not seem the least
ashamed. I told him to order dinner for six persons, but he remarked that
he would order it only for four, as he had to keep his dear mother
company; she always took her dinner in bed. Everyone to his taste, I
thought, and I let him do as he pleased.

Two minutes after he had gone, the landlord came to my room and said,
"Reverend sir, the persons you have invited here have each the appetite
of two men at least; I give you notice of it, because I must charge
accordingly." "All right," I replied, "but let us have a good dinner."

When I was dressed, I thought I ought to pay my compliments to the
compliant mothe