, one baioccho a yard.

'And now let us walk out to Saint Peter's, and see the church by
moonlight.'

'The want of sidewalks in this city,' remarked Rocjean, 'compelling the
Romans to walk over cobble-stones, undoubtedly is the cause of the large
feet of the women, added to their dislike of being in pain from tight
shoes or boots. For genuine martyrdom from tight shoes, French, Spanish,
and Americans--but chiefly Cubans--next to Chinese women, are ahead of
the world.'

'But apart from the fact that they do walk on the narrow sidewalks in
the Corso, I have noticed that in the side-streets, even where there is
a foot-walk, nobody takes advantage of it at night.'

'For a good reason, as we shall probably see,' said Rocjean,' before we
reach the bridge of San Angelo. But keep close to me in the middle of
the street.'

The moonlight shone brightly down the narrow street they were then
walking through, which, but for this, the occasional dim light of an
oil-lamp hung in front of a shrine, the light from a wine or grocery
shop, and the ruddy blaze of a charcoal-fire, where chestnuts were
roasting for sale, would have been dark indeed. The ground-floor of
very few Roman houses is ever occupied as a dwelling-place; it is given
up to shops, stables, etc., the families residing, according to their
wealth, on the lowest up to the highest stories; the light purses going
up and the heavy ones sinking. They had walked nearly to the end of this
street, when, happening to look up at the fourth story of a house, he
saw something white being reversed in the moonlight, and the next
instant a long stream of water, reminding him of the horse-tail fall in
Switzerland, came splashing down where a sidewalk should have been.

'What do you think of the middle of the street now?' asked Rocjean.

'Let's stick to it, even if we stick in it. I'm going to buy an
umbrella, _and spread it too_, when I go out of nights, after this.'

They reached the bridge of San Angelo, and studied for a short time the
fine effect of the moonlight shining on the turbid, slow-flowing Tiber,
and lighting up the heavy pile of the castle of San Angelo. Then they
reached the Piazza of Saint Peter's, and here the scene was imperial.
Out and in through the semi-circular arcade of massive pillars the
moonlight stole to sleep upon the soft-toned, gray old pavement, or was
thrown in dancing, sparkling light from the two noble jets of water
tossed in the clear night-air