id for me, and nobody would bid against him. Thus I am become
a citizen of Lovere, to the great joy of the inhabitants, not (as they
would pretend) from their respect for my person, but I perceive they
fancy I shall attract all the travelling English; and, to say the truth,
the singularity of the place is well worth their curiosity; but, as I
have no correspondents, I may be buried here fifty years, and nobody
know anything of the matter."

Lady Mary found great pleasure in her correspondence. It was one of the
occupations with which she solaced her loneliness, and she was never more
happy than when she had an exciting story to set down, for she could set
it down with the ease of a Walpole and an individual touch that was all
her own:

"I was quietly reading in my closet, when I was interrupted by the
chambermaid of the Signora Laura Bono, who flung herself at my feet,
and, in an agony of sobs and tears, begged me, for the love of the holy
Madonna, to hasten to her master's house, where the two brothers would
certainly murder one another, if my presence did not stop their fury. I
was very much surprised, having always heard them spoken of as a pattern
of fraternal union. However, I made all possible speed thither, without
staying for hoods or attendance. I was soon there (the house touching my
garden wall), and was directed to the bedchamber by the noise of oaths
and execrations; but, on opening the door, was astonished to a degree
you may better guess than I describe, by seeing the Signora Laura
prostrate on the ground, melting in tears, and her husband standing with
a drawn stiletto in his hand, swearing she should never see tomorrow's
sun. I was soon let into the secret. The good man, having business of
consequence at Brescia, went thither early in the morning; but, as he
expected his chief tenant to pay his rent that day, he left orders with
his wife, that if the farmer, who lived two miles off, came himself, or
sent any of his sons, she should take care to make him very welcome. She
obeyed him with great punctuality, the money coming in the hand of a
handsome lad of eighteen: she did not only admit him to her own table,
and produce the best wine in the cellar, but resolved to give him _chere
entiere_. While she was exercising this generous hospitality, the
husband met midway the gentleman he intended to visit, who was posting
to another side of the country; they agreed on another appointment, and
he returned t