generously rewarded.

The lodge-keeper in question (an old fellow with a wooden leg) had not
been able to make the two vagabonds in question understand this. They
insisted on coming in, and the lodge-keeper said that if I had not
appeared he verily believed they would have entered in spite of him. They
seemed to know very little English; but as I knew a little Italian, which
I eked out with a few significant gestures, I speedily enlightened them,
and they sheered off, looking daggers, and muttering what sounded like
curses.

The man who carried the organ was of the usual type--short, thick-set,
hairy, and unwashed. His companion, rather to my surprise, was just the
reverse--tall, shapely, well set up, and comparatively well clad; and with
his dark eyes, black mustache, broad-brimmed hat, and red tie loosely
knotted round his brawny throat, he looked decidedly picturesque.

On the following day, as I was going to the stables (which were a few
hundred yards below the house) I found my picturesque Italian in the back
garden, singing a barcarole to the accompaniment of a guitar. But as he
had complied with the condition of which I had informed him, I made no
objection. So far from that I gave him a shilling, and as the maids (who
were greatly taken with his appearance) got up a collection for him and
gave him a feed, he did not do badly.

A few days later, while out riding, I called at the station for an evening
paper, and there he was again, "touching his guitar," and singing
something that sounded very sentimental.

"That fellow is like a bad shilling," I said to one of the