"_Molto intelligente_, that countryman of yours," said B----, spelling his card. "He seems to take things very much upon trust," said we. "'Tis a pity he don't understand Italian or French better. Otherwise, I _might_ have perhaps suggested better things than those he has actually chosen. But after all," added he, "people don't like being put out of conceit with their own opinions; and think you personally interested, if you offer yours unasked." "I should have been sorry to have taken that vase as antique, as he has done; or to have paid the tenth of the price he has paid you for it." "Oh! don't be afraid; he can afford it--an English gentleman!--and to _him_ it is worth what he paid for it; else, if he did not think so, who forced him to take it?" "I _wonder_ now what Father S---- would have said to it;" asked Madame of her husband, looking up to the ceiling, and sighing. "Nothing, 'twas not in his province to pronounce judgment in such a matter." We too _wondered_, perhaps, what he might have said to Madame, touching her Cavaliere, whose discourse seemed to have told almost as powerfully on her as _his_ sermon at St Carlo's. We wondered, but _to ourselves_, and making the common-place remark, that it seemed easier to _preach_ than to _practise_, exchanged smiles with B---- and his wife, and withdrew, to think over what we had seen; and to arrive at our own conclusions, touching the general utility of fashionable and popular preaching! BIRBONE IV. HERR ASCHERSON. "Rogare malo, quam emere."--SUIDAS. Sly old fox, what pen shall do justice to thy cunning! Grave, venerable, ancient cheat, who showest a _Bible_, left thee by some pious enthusiast (the old family pew-book, morocco, in silver clasps--well thou lookest to them at least) in return for many dealings with thee, and in requital, so thou sayest, for thine incomparable disinterestedness and honesty!