ler thus began:--

THE STUDENT'S STORY.

"When I was in Rome, I lodged in the Via Margutta, which, for the
benefit of those who have not been there, may be described as a street
of studios and stables, crossed at one end by a little roofed gallery
with a single window, like a shabby 'Bridge of Sighs,' A gutter runs
down the middle, interrupted occasionally by heaps of stable-litter; and
the perspective is damaged by rows of linen suspended across the street
at uncertain intervals. The houses in this agreeable thoroughfare are
dingy, dilapidated, and comfortless, and all which are not in use as
stables, are occupied by artists. However, it was a very jolly place,
and I never was happier anywhere in my life. I had but just touched my
little patrimony, and I was acquainted with plenty of pleasant fellows
who used to come down to my rooms at night from the French Academy where
they had been studying all day. Ah, what evenings those were! What
suppers we used to have in from the _Lepre_! What lots of Orvieto we
drank! And what a mountain of empty wicker bottles had to be cleared
away from the little square yard with the solitary lemon-tree at the
back of the house!"

"Come, Mueller--no fond memories!" cried a student in a holland blouse.
"Get on with the story."

"Ay, get on with the story!" echoed several voices.

To which Mueller, who took advantage of the interruption to finish his
_grog au vin_, deigned no reply.

"Well," he continued, "like a good many other fellows who, having
everything to learn and nothing to do, fancy themselves great geniuses
only because they are in Rome, I put a grand brass plate on the door,
testifying to all passers-by that mine was the STUDIO DI HERR FRANZ
MULLER; and, having done this, I believed, of course, that my fortune
was to be made out of hand. Nothing came of it, however. People in
search of Dessoulavy's rooms knocked occasionally to ask their way, and
a few English and Americans dropped in from time to time to stare about
them, after the free-and-easy fashion of foreigners in Rome; but, for
all this, I found no patrons. Thus several months went by, during which
I studied from the life, worked hard at the antique, and relieved the
monotony of study with occasional trips to Frascati, or supper parties
at the Cafe Greco."

"The story! the story!" interrupted a dozen impatient voices.

"All in good time," said Mueller, with provoking indifference. "We are
now coming to it."