occa. "At least, faithful friend, you have tried that
experiment as far as human nature will permit;" and he extended his hand
to his fellow-exile with that familiarity which exists between servant
and master in the usages of the Continent. Jackeymo bent low, and a tear
fell upon the hand he kissed.

"Cospetto!" said Dr. Riccabocca, "a thousand mock pearls do not make up
the cost of a single true one! The tears of women--we know their worth;
but the tears of an honest man--Fie, Giacomo!--at least I can never
repay you this! Go and see to our wardrobe."

So far as his master's wardrobe was concerned, that order was pleasing
to Jackeymo; for the doctor had in his drawers suits which Jackeymo
pronounced to be as good as new, though many a long year had passed
since they left the tailor's hands. But when Jackeymo came to examine
the state of his own clothing department, his face grew considerably
longer. It was not that he was without other clothes than those on his
back,--quantity was there, but the quality! Mournfully he gazed on two
suits, complete in three separate members of which man's raiments are
composed: the one suit extended at length upon his bed, like a veteran
stretched by pious hands after death; the other brought piecemeal to the
invidious light,--the torso placed upon a chair, the limbs dangling down
from Jackeymo's melancholy arm. No bodies long exposed at the Morgue
could evince less sign of resuscitation than those respectable defuncts!
For, indeed, Jackeymo had been less thrifty of his apparel, more
profusus sui, than his master. In the earliest days of their exile, he
preserved the decorous habit of dressing for dinner,--it was a respect
due to the padrone,--and that habit had lasted till the two habits on
which it necessarily depended had evinced the first symptoms of decay;
then the evening clothes had been taken into morning wear, in which hard
service they had breathed their last.

The doctor, notwithstanding his general philosophical abstraction from
such household details, had more than once said, rather in pity to
Jackeymo than with an eye to that respectability which the costume
of the servant reflects on the dignity of the master, "Giacomo, thou
wantest clothes; fit thyself out of mine!"

And Jackeymo had bowed his gratitude, as if the donation had been
accepted; but the fact was that that same fitting out was easier said
than done. For though-thanks to an existence mainly upon sticklebacks