ad an
excuse for it. A fortnight in strange mountains disposes a man to look
for something at his next encounter with his kind, and the sight of
Santa Chiara would have fired the imagination of a judge in Chancery.

I strode happily into the courtyard of the Tre Croci, and presently had
my expectation confirmed for I found my fellow,--a faithful rogue I got
in Rome on a Cardinal's recommendation,--hot in dispute with a lady's
maid. The woman was old, harsh-featured--no Italian clearly, though she
spoke fluently in the tongue. She rated my man like a pickpocket, and
the dispute was over a room.

"The signor will bear me out," said Gianbattista. "Was not I sent to
Verona with his baggage, and thence to this place of ill manners? Was
I not bidden engage for him a suite of apartments? Did I not duly
choose these fronting on the gallery, and dispose therein the signor's
baggage? And lo! an hour ago I found it all turned into the yard and
this woman installed in its place. It is monstrous, unbearable! Is
this an inn for travellers, or haply the private mansion of these
Magnificences?"

"My servant speaks truly," I said firmly yet with courtesy, having no
mind to spoil adventure by urging rights. "He had orders to take these
rooms for me, and I know not what higher power can countermand me."

The woman had been staring at me scornfully, for no doubt in my dusty
habit I was a figure of small count; but at the sound of my voice she
started, and cried out, "You are English, signor?"

I bowed an admission. "Then my mistress shall speak with you," she
said, and dived into the inn like an elderly rabbit.

Gianbattista was for sending for the landlord and making a riot in that
hostelry; but I stayed him, and bidding him fetch me a flask of white
wine, three lemons, and a glass of eau de vie, I sat down peaceably at
one of the little tables in the courtyard and prepared for the
quenching of my thirst. Presently, as I sat drinking that excellent
compound of my own invention, my shoulder was touched, and I turned to
find the maid and her mistress. Alas for my hopes of a glorious being,
young and lissom and bright with the warm riches of the south! I saw a
short, stout little lady, well on the wrong side of thirty. She had
plump red cheeks, and fair hair dressed indifferently in the Roman
fashion. Two candid blue eyes redeemed her plainness, and a certain
grave and gentle dignity. She was notably a gentlewoman, so I