n, with temperament like yours,--fellows so ingrained in
indolence that the first element they weigh in every enterprise was, how
little trouble it was to cost them."

"I declare," said the Italian, with more show of energy, "I 'd hold life
as cheaply as yourself if I had to live in your country,--breathe only
fogs, and inhale nothing pleasanter than coal-smoke."

"It is true," said Maitland, gravely, "the English have not got
climate,--they have only weather; but who is to say if out of the
vicissitudes of our skies we do not derive that rare activity which
makes us profit by every favorable emergency?"

"To do every conceivable thing but one."

"And what is that one?"

"Enjoy yourselves! Oh, _caro amico_, you do with regard to your
pleasures what you do with your music,--you steal a little from the
Continent, and always spoil it in the adaptation."

Maitland sipped his wine in half-sullen silence for some minutes, and
then said, "You think then, really, we ought to be at Naples?"

"I am sure of it. Baretti,--do you forget Baretti? he had the wine-shop
at the end of the Contrada St. Lucia."

"I remember him as a Caraorrista."

"The same; he is here now. He tells me that the Court is so completely
in the hands of the Queen that they will not hear of any danger; that
they laugh every time Cavour is mentioned; and now that both France
and England have withdrawn their envoys, the King says openly, 'It is a
pleasure to drive out on the Chiaja when one knows they 'll not meet a
French gendarme or an English detective.'"

"And what does Baretti say of popular feeling?"

"He says the people would like to do something, though nobody seems to
know what it ought to be. They thought that Milano's attempt t 'other
day was clever, and they think it might n't be bad to blow up the
Emperor, or perhaps the Pope, or both; but he also says that the
Camorra are open to reason, and that Victor Emmanuel and Cavour are as
legitimate food for an explosive shell as the others; and, in fact,
any convulsion that will smash the shutters and lead to pillage must be
good."

"You think Baretti can be depended on?"

"I know he can. He has been Capo Camorrista eight years in one of the
vilest quarters of Naples; and if there were a suspicion of him, he'd
have been stabbed long ago."

"And what is he doing here?"

"He came here to see whether anything could be done about assassinating
the Emperor."

"I'd not have seen him, Carlo. I