You are unmoved. Have you not seen or heard of, many a time, the
heaviest kind of flour-merchants ruined by too heavy speculations, burst
up so high the crows couldn't fly to them; and heard this without
changing a muscle of your face?

'But, signore, do buy a bouquet to please your lady?'

'Haven't one.'

'_Altro_!' answers the man, triumphantly, 'whom did I see the other day,
with these eyes, (pointing at his own,) in a magnificent carriage,
beside the most beautiful _Donna Inglesa_ in Rome? _Iddio giusto_!'....
At this period, he sees he has made a ten strike, and at once follows it
up by knocking down the ten-pin boy, so as to clear the alley, thus:
'For _her_ sake, signore.'

You pay a paul, (and give the bouquet to--your landlady's daughter,)
while the departing _mercante di fiori_ assures you that he never, no,
never expects to make a fortune at flowers; but if he gains enough to
pay for his wine, he will be very tipsy as long as he lives!

Then comes an old man, with a chessboard of inlaid stone, which he
hasn't an idea of selling; but finds it excellent to 'move on,' without
being checkmated as a beggar without visible means of s'port. The first
time he brought it round, and held it out square to Caper, that cool
young man, taking a handful of coppers from his pocket, arranged them as
checkers on the board, without taking any notice of the man; and after
he had placed them, began playing deliberately. He rested his chin on
his hand, and with knitted brows, studied several intricate moves; he