would be full all the time!'

'H'm!' said Rocjean, 'I suppose you would be afraid to go to such
horrible countries, among such people?'

'Not I,' spoke Rita,'didn't Ida go to Paris, and didn't she come back to
Rome with such a magnificent silk dress, and gold watch, and such a
bonnet! all full of flowers, and lace, and ribbons? Oh! they don't eat
'nothing but maccaroni' there! And they don't have priests all the time
sneaking round to keep a poor girl from earning a little money honestly,
and haul her up before the police if her _carta di soggiorno_ [permit to
remain in Rome] runs out. I wish [here Rita stamped her foot and her
eyes flashed] Garibaldi would come here! Then you would see these black
crows flying, _Iddio giusto_! Then we would have no more of these
_arciprete_ making us pay them for every mouthful of bread we eat, or
wine we drink, or wood we burn.'

'Why,' said Caper, 'they don't keep the baker-shops, and wine-shops, and
wood-yards, do they?'

'No,' answered Rita, 'but they speculate in them, and Fra 'Tonelli makes
his cousins and so on inspectors; and they regulate the prices to suit
themselves, and make oh! such tremen-di-ous fortunes. [Here Rita opened
her eyes, and spread her hands, as if beholding the elephant.] Don't I
remember, some time ago, how, when the Pope went out riding, he found
both sides of the way from the Vatican to San Angelo crowded with people
on their knees, groaning and calling to him. Said he to Fra 'Tonelli:

''What are these poor people about?'