m and return them to you as good as new."

"Some of them are getting loose," I admitted, "but they wouldn't come out
so easily as you think, and how should I ever get them in again?--Oh, I
see what you mean, he is a dentist in artificial teeth."

"Of course. When I say he is not like me, I mean that he is a man of
great learning, really well educated. He is very clever. You will see
him at dinner. I must not keep you talking, you wish to sleep. There is
the bed; why not lie down? If only we were in my own house at home--"
and so on.

There was the bed, certainly, if I could conquer my bashfulness and make
use of it. Filomena treated the proposal as quite natural, and put the
guitar and the mandoline on the chest of drawers, though there would have
been plenty of room for them on the bed with me; she and the corporal
prepared to leave the room, and I accepted their hospitality with excuses
which I fancy I made with some realism because Peppino had kept me up
talking half the night. They went away, I took off my boots, lay down on
Filomena's bed, and was asleep in a moment.

At about six o'clock the noise of the corporal opening the door woke me.
He hoped he had not disturbed me, he had been in several times to fetch
things and had tried to make no noise. I had known nothing about it.
Ivanhoe had come and was very hungry. Then he showed me the cupboard
containing the basin and water for me to wash, and told his fidanzata we
were ready for the dinner which she had been cooking while I slept. He
seemed to consider the room as his instead of hers--but then it was he
who was paying the twenty francs a month. Still I had a sense as though
there was something wrong.

I was introduced to Ivanhoe, and we sat down to Filomena's dinner, which
was like her embroidery and like her music--it was very well cooked, but
the materials on which her skill had been expended were not worth
cooking, they ought not to have been bought. The young lady was one of
those artists who think more of treatment than of subject. The corporal,
on the other hand, in the management of his matrimonial affairs, had
chosen a good subject but was treating it in a way which my English
prejudices made me think too free.

"I have not asked after your cold," said the corporal to his brother. "I
hope it is better."

"It is quite well, thank you," replied Ivanhoe. "I have cured it with a
remedy that never fails."

"I wish you could tell me wh