the town. As he reached the more populous quarters
his walk slackened to a stroll; and now and then he paused to observe a
knot of merry-makers or look through the curtains of the tents set up in
the squares.

The man was plainly but decently dressed, like a petty tradesman or a
lawyer's clerk, and the night being chill he wore a cloak, and had drawn
his hat-brim over his forehead. He sauntered on, letting the crowd carry
him, with the air of one who has an hour to kill, and whose
holiday-making takes the form of an amused spectatorship. To such an
observer the streets offered ample entertainment. The shrewd air
discouraged lounging and kept the crowd in motion; but the open
platforms built for dancing were thronged with couples, and every
peep-show, wine-shop and astrologer's booth was packed to the doors. The
shrines and street-lamps being all alight, and booths and platforms hung
with countless lanterns, the scene was as bright as day; but in the
ever-shifting medley of peasant-dresses, liveries, monkish cowls and
carnival disguises, a soberly-clad man might easily go unremarked.

Reaching the square before the Cathedral, the solitary observer pushed
his way through the idlers gathered about a dais with a curtain at the
back. Before the curtain stood a Milanese quack, dressed like a noble
gentleman, with sword and plumed hat, and rehearsing his cures in
stentorian tones, while his zany, in the short mask and green-and-white
habit of Brighella, cracked jokes and turned hand-springs for the
diversion of the vulgar.

"Behold," the charlatan was shouting, "the marvellous Egyptian
love-philter distilled from the pearl that the great Emperor Antony
dropped into Queen Cleopatra's cup. This infallible fluid, handed down
for generations in the family of my ancestor, the High Priest of Isis--"
The bray of a neighbouring show-man's trumpet cut him short, and
yielding to circumstances he drew back the curtain, and a tumbling-girl
sprang out and began her antics on the front of the stage.

"What did he say was the price of that drink, Giannina?" asked a young
maid-servant pulling her neighbour's sleeve.

"Are you thinking of buying it for Pietrino, my beauty?" the other
returned with a laugh. "Believe me, it is a sound proverb that says:
When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself."

The girl drew away angrily, and the quack took up his harangue:--"The
same philter, ladies and gentlemen--though in confessing it I betray a
p