but that Riccabocca received him with such excessive politeness that the
blunt country gentleman felt shy and put out, and used to say, that "to
call on Riccabocca was as bad as going to court."

But I left Dr. Riccabocca on the high-road. By this time he has ascended
a narrow path that winds by the side of the cascade, he has passed a
trellis-work covered with vines, from the which Jacheymo has positively
succeeded in making what he calls _wine_--a liquid, indeed, that, if the
cholera had been popularly known in those days, would have soured the
mildest member of the Board of Health; for Squire Hazeldean, though a
robust man, who daily carried off his bottle of port with impunity,
having once rashly tasted it, did not recover the effect till he had had
a bill from the apothecary as long as his own arm. Passing this trellis,
Dr. Riccabocca entered upon the terrace, with its stone pavement smoothed
and trim as hands could make it. Here, on neat stands, all his favorite
flowers were arranged. Here four orange-trees were in full blossom; here
a kind of summer-house or Belvidere, built by Jackeymo and himself, made
his chosen morning-room from May till October; and from this Belvidere
there was as beautiful an expanse of prospect as if our English Nature
had hospitably spread on her green board all that she had to offer as a
banquet to the exile.

A man without his coat, which was thrown over the balustrade, was
employed in watering the flowers: a man with movements so
mechanical--with a face so rigidly grave in its tawny hues--that he
seemed like an automaton made out of mahogany.

"Giacomo," said Dr. Riccabocca, softly.

The automaton stopped its hand, and turned its head.

"Put by the watering-pot, and come here," continued Riccabocca in
Italian; and moving toward the balustrade, he leaned over it. Mr.
Mitford, the historian, calls Jean Jacques _John James_. Following that
illustrious example, Giacomo shall be Anglified into Jackeymo.
Jackeymo came to the balustrade also, and stood a little behind his
master.

"Friend," said Riccabocca, "enterprises have not always succeeded with
us. Don't you think, after all, it is tempting our evil star to rent
those fields from the landlord?" Jackeymo crossed himself, and made some
strange movement with a little coral charm which he wore set in a ring on
his finger.

"If the Madonna send us luck, and we could hire a lad cheap?" said
Jackeymo, doubtfully.

"_Piu vale un p