"For you illustrious American Signore. You all like to hear them."
"Do you know any thing about the tunes?"
"Signore?"
"Do you know what the words are?"
"Oh no. I am an Italian."
"I suppose you make money out of them."
"I make more in a day with these than I could in a week with other
tunes."
"You lay up money, I suppose."
"Oh yes. In two years I will retire and let my younger brother play
here."
"These tunes?"
"Yes, Signore."
"To Americans?"
"Yes, Signore."
"What is it all?" asked the Senator.
"He says that he finds he makes money by playing American tunes to
Americans."
"Hm," said the Senator, with some displeasure; "and he has no soul
then to see the--the beauty, the sentiment, the grandeur of his
vocation!"
"Not a bit--he only goes in for money."
The Senator turned away in disgust. "Yankee Doodle," he murmured,
"ought of itself to have a refining and converting influence on the
European mind; but it is too debased--yes--yes--too debased."
CHAPTER XXII.
HOW A BARGAIN IS MADE.--THE WILES OF THE ITALIAN TRADESMAN.--THE NAKED
SULKY BEGGAR, AND THE JOVIAL WELL-CLAD BEGGAR.--WHO IS THE KING OF
BEGGARS?
"What are you thinking about, Buttons?"
"Well, Dick, to tell the truth, I have been thinking that if I do
find the Spaniards they won't have reason to be particularly proud of
me as a companion. Look at me."
"I look, and to be frank, my dear boy, I must say that you look more
shabby-genteel than otherwise."
"That's the result of travelling on one suit of clothes--without
considering fighting. I give up my theory."
"Give it up, then, and come out as a butterfly."
"Friend of my soul, the die is cast. Come forth with me and seek a
clothing-store."
It was not difficult to find one. They entered the first one that they
saw. The polite Roman overwhelmed them with attention.
"Show me a coat, Signore."
Signore sprang nimbly at the shelves and brought down every coat in
his store. Buttons picked out one that suited his fancy, and tried it
on.
"What is the price?"
With a profusion of explanation and description the Roman informed
him: "Forty piastres."
"I'll give you twelve," said Buttons, quietly.
The Italian smiled, put his head on one side, drew down the corners
of his mouth, and threw up his shoulders. This is the _shrug_. The
shrug requires special attention. The shrug is a gesture used by the
Latin race for expressing a multitude of things, both objectively and
subjectively. It is a language of itself. It is, as circumstances
require, a noun, adverb, pronoun, verb, adjective, preposition,
interjection, conjunction. Yet it does not supersede the spoken
language. It comes in rather when spoken words are useless, to convey
intensity of meaning or delicacy. It is not taught, but it is learned.