On returning from this visit to our hotel, about an hour later, we found Coco under the gateway, and on the look-out for us. _More solito_, he had something to show us. The porter looked after us inquiringly, as we bid him follow up-stairs; but was surprised by a counter look, and by our calling him by his _name_. Even on the stairs, he could not forbear sundry short ejaculations, by way of preparing us for what we were to see presently. "_Ah! ché bella roba!_ Ah, what flowers of the mint I have brought you to see to-day!--bought for a song--at three Carlini a-piece! You shall have them at three and a half--I content myself with small gains. But you, sir, who are discreet, and know the value of these things, shall judge whether I have told you a falsehood or no." By this time we were in our room. The dirty bag was untied; and there leaped out of it, not indeed a cat, but a large heap of consular coins, with which we seemed forthwith to be vastly familiar; and no wonder; since, on inspecting them, we found that the whole had been ours not twelve hours before, we having disposed of them to a refiner for their weight in silver, to melt. "Take them all, sir, _tutti quanti_, at three Carlines and a half a-piece." "No; nor yet for two Carlines, Coco," said we, putting the paper from us. Upon which the cunning fellow hoped _he_ had not been taken in; having certainly purchased them in the persuasion of reselling them, as a catch, to us. "The _Italian marquis_, of whom he had bought them, assured him, on his honour, that he had made a rare bargain with him." "Are the coins your own, Coco?" "To my cost are they, signor, unless you re-purchase them." "I sold them only this morning, Coco, for the weight of the silver; you must try somebody else." Upon which Coco, with admirable presence of mind, replaced them in his bag, and said "he had made a _mistake_!" "We regretted that he had not purchased them from us at the rate of one Carline and a-half per piece; in place of having been duped into paying three and a-half." Though he saw plainly, from our manner, that we were aware of his roguery, he was not put out; but shrugging his shoulders, and twitching the angles of a mouth remarkable for its mobility, he merely said--"Pazienza! a bargain's a bargain; we grow wiser as we grow older," and speedily withdrew. BIRBONE III. BASSEGGIO. "Unde habeas quærit nemo, sed oportet habere." "Fidarsi e bene, ma non fidarsi e meglio."--_Italian Proverb._