rpreter did not understand. The Senator made an expressive
sign. The interpreter mentioned the request to the Chief, who shook
his head coldly.

"This is formal," said the Interpreter-"not social."

The Senator's face flushed. He frowned.

"Give him my compliments then, and tell him the next time he
refuses a gentleman's offer he had better do it like a gentleman.
For my part, if I chose to be uncivil, I might say that I consider
your Roman police very small potatoes."

[Illustration: Got You There!]

The Interpreter translated this literally, and though the final
expression was not very intelligible, yet it seemed to imply
contempt.

So the Chief of Police made his communication as sternly as possible.
Grave reports had been made about His American Excellency. The
Senator looked surprised.

"What about?"

That he was haranguing the people, going about secretly, plotting,
and trying to instill revolutionary sentiments into the public mind.

"Pooh!" said the Senator.

The Chief of Police bade him be careful. He would not be permitted
to stir up an excitable populace. This was to give him warning.

"Pooh!" said the Senator again.

And if he neglected this warning it would be the worse for him. And
the Chief of Police looked unutterable things. The Senator gazed at
him sternly and somewhat contemptuously for a few minutes.

"You're no great shakes anyhow," said he.

"Signore?" said the Interpreter.

"Doesn't it strike you that you are talking infernal nonsense?" asked
the Senator in a slightly argumentative tone of voice, throwing one
leg over another, tilting back his chair, and folding his arms.

"Your language is disrespectful," was the indignant reply.

"Yours strikes me as something of the same kind, too; but more
--it is absurd."

"What do you mean?"

"You say I stir up the people."

"Yes. Do you deny it?"

"Pooh! How can a man stir up the people when he can't speak a word
of the language?"

The Chief of Police did not reply for a moment.

"I rather think I've got you there," said the Senator, dryly. "Hey?
old Hoss?"

("Old Hoss" was an epithet which he used when he was in a good humor.)
He felt that he had the best of it here, and his anger was gone. He
therefore tilted his chair back farther, and placed his feet upon
the back of a chair that was in front of him.

"There are Italians in Rome who speak English," was at length the
rejoinder.

"I wish I could find some then," sa