My father, while a merchant, and also my uncle, had done a very large business in Florentine straw goods, and I had received letters to several English houses who had corresponded with them. I heard, long after, that my arrival had caused a small panic in Florence in business circles, it being apprehended that I had come out to establish a rival branch, or to buy at head-quarters for the American "straw-market." I believe that their fears were appeased when I interviewed them. One of these worthy men had been so long in Italy that he had caught a little of its superstition. He wished to invest in lottery tickets, and asked me for lucky numbers, which I gave him. As I write these lines in Florence, I have within half-an-hour called for the first time on an old witch or _strega_, whom I found surrounded by herbs and bottles, and a magnificent cat, who fixed his eyes on me all the time, as if he recognised a friend. I found, however, that she only knew the common vulgar sorceries, and was unable to give me any of the higher _scongiurazioni_ or conjurations; and as I left, the old sorceress said respectfully and admiringly, "You come to _me_ to learn, O Maestro, but it is fitter that I take lessons from you!" Then she asked me for "the wizard blessing," which I gave her in Romany. So my first and last experiences in the deep and dark art come together! I became acquainted in Florence with Hiram Powers, which reminds me that I once in Rome dined _vis-a-vis_ to Gibson and several other artists, with whom I became intimate as young men readily do. I contrived to study architecture, and made myself very much at home in a few studios. The magnificent _Fiorara_, or flower-girl, whom so many will remember for many years, was then in the full bloom of her beauty. She and others gave flowers to any strangers whom they met, not expecting money down, but when a man departed the flower-girls were always on hand to solicit a gratuity. Twenty years later this same Fiorara, still a very handsome woman, remembered me, and gave my wife a handsome bouquet on leaving. I studied Provencal and Italian poetry in illuminated MSS. in the Ambrosian or Laurentian Library, and took my coffee at Doney's, and saw more of Florence in a few weeks' time than I have ever done since in any one of my residences here, though some of them have been for six and nine months. As is quite natural. Who that lives in London ever goes to see the Tower? All things in Europe were so new and fresh and beautiful and wonderful to me then, and I had been yearning for them so earnestly for so many years, and this golden freedom followed so closely on the deadly _ennui_ of Princeton, that I could never see enough.