and the heavy bunches of grapes which hung here and there. The shutters
were closed, and the little house seemed to have been lulled to sleep by
the heat and light of the atmosphere and the buzzing of the gnats.

"Oh, go in; they'll wake up at once," said the coachman, who had divined
my thoughts.

Then, without waiting for my answer, like a man familiar with the customs
of the country, he took his horses down the road to the stable.

I went in. A swarm of bees and drones were buzzing like a whirlwind
beneath the plane-trees; a frightened white hen ran cackling from her
nest in the dust. No one appeared. I opened the door; still nobody was to
be seen. Inside I found a passage, with rooms to right and left and a
wooden staircase at the end. The house, having been kept well closed, was
cool and fresh. As I stood on the threshold striving to accustom my eyes
to the darkness of the interior, I heard the sound of voices to my right:

"Picturesque as you please, but the journey has been a failure! These
people are no better than savages; introductions, distinctions, and I may
say even fame, had no effect upon them!"

"Do you think they have even read your letters?" "That would be still
worse, to refuse to read letters addressed to them! No, I tell you,
there's no excuse."

"They have suffered great trouble, I hear, and that is some excuse for
them, father."

"No, my dear, there is no possible excuse for their keeping hidden
treasures of such scientific interest. I do not consider that even an
Italian nobleman, were he orphan from his cradle, and thrice a widower,
has any right to keep locked up from the investigation of scholars an
unequalled collection of Roman coins, and a very presentable show of
medallions and medals properly so-called. Are you aware that this boorish
patrician has in his possession the eight types of medal of the gens
Attilia?"

"Really?"

"I am certain of it, and he has the thirty-seven of the gens Cassia, one
hundred and eighteen to one hundred and twenty-one of the gens Cornelia,
the eleven Farsuleia, and dozens of Numitoria, Pompeia, and Scribonia,
all in perfect condition, as if fresh from the die. Besides these, he has
some large medals of the greatest rarity; the Marcus Aurelius with his
son on the reverse side, Theodora bearing the globe, and above all the
Annia Faustina with Heliogabalus on the reverse side, an incomparable
treasure, of which there is only one other example, and that