to the father, and by degrees became a kind of overlooker of
a house in which his remarkable integrity, his acknowledged
sobriety, and a thousand other virtues useless to enumerate,
gave him an eternal place by the fireside, with a right of
inspection over the domestics. Besides this, it was he who
tasted the macaroni, to maintain the pure flavor of the
ancient tradition; and it must be allowed that he never
permitted a grain of pepper too much, or an atom of parmesan
too little. His joy was at its height on that day when
called upon to share the secret of Cropoli the younger, and
to paint the famous sign.

He was seen at once rummaging with ardor in an old box, in
which he found some brushes, a little gnawed by the rats,
but still passable; some colors in bladders almost dried up;
some linseed-oil in a bottle, and a palette which had
formerly belonged to Bronzino, that dieu de la pittoure, as
the ultramontane artist, in his ever young enthusiasm,
always called him.

Pittrino was puffed up with all the joy of a rehabilitation.

He did as Raphael had done -- he changed his style, and
painted, in the fashion of the Albanian, two goddesses
rather than two queens. These illustrious ladies appeared so
lovely on the sign, -- they presented to the astonished eyes
such an assemblage of lilies and roses, the enchanting
result of the change of style in Pittrino -- they assumed
the poses of sirens so Anacreontically -- that the principal
echevin, when admitted to view this capital piece in the