ertinence I could not
rebuke (for fear of drawing the attention of the passers-by, who were
numerous)--"nevertheless I divine that you have much either to tell
me or conceal."

He, at any rate, was not reticent. On our way he informed me that
his companions in the lodgings were a troupe of strolling players
among whom he held the important role of _capo comico_. We reached
the house after threading our way through a couple of tortuous alleys
leading off a street which called itself the Via Servi, and under an
archway with a window from which a girl blew Mr. Fett an unabashed
kiss across a box of geraniums. The master of it, a Messer' Nicola
(by surname Fazio) had rooms for us and to spare. To him Mr. Fett
handed the market-basket, after extracting from it an enormous melon,
and bade him escort the Princess upstairs and give her choice of the
cleanest apartments at his disposal. He then led us to the main
living-room where, from a corner-cupboard, he produced glasses,
plates, spoons, a bowl of sugar, and a flask of white wine.
The flask he pushed towards Marc'antonio and Stephanu: the melon he
divided with his clasp-knife.

"You will join us?" he asked, profering a slice. "You will drink,
then, at least? Ah, that is better. And will you convey my
apologies to your two bandits and beg them to excuse my conversing
with you in English? To tell the truth"--here, having helped them to
a slice apiece and laid one aside for the Princess, he took the
remainder upon his own plate--"though as a rule we make collation at
noon or a little before, my English stomach cries out against an
empty morning. You will like my Thespians, sir, when you see 'em.
The younger ladies are decidedly--er--vivacious. Bianca, our
Columbine, has all the makings of a beauty--she has but just turned
the corner of seventeen; and Lauretta, who plays the scheming
chambermaid, is more than passably good-looking. As for Donna Julia,
her charms at this time of day are moral rather than physical: but,
having married our leading lover, Rinaldo, she continues to exact his
vows on the stage and the current rate of pay for them from the
treasury. Does Rinaldo's passion show signs of flagging? She pulls
his ears for it, later on, in conjugal seclusion. Poor fellow!--

"_Non equidem invideo; miror magis_.

"Do the night's takings fall short of her equally high standard?
She threatens to pull mine: for I, cavalier, am the treasurer. . . .
But