"Yes, I am mad," answered the lawyer ironically.

"Who knows?" returned the other. "I tell you they are building a Pompeii
in those new quarters. When you and I are old men, crazy Englishmen will
pay two francs to be allowed to wander about the ruins."

"It may be. I am not thinking of building. In tine first place I have
not the _soldi_."

"And if you had?" inquired Marzio.

"What nonsense! Besides, no one has. It is all done on credit, and the
devil take the hindmost. But if I really had a million--eh! I know what
I would do."

"Let us hear. I also know what I would do. Besta! What is the use of
building castles in the air?"

"In the air, or not in the air, if I had a million, I know what I would
do."

"I would have a newspaper," said Marzio. "Whew! how it would sting!"

"It would sting you, and bleed you into the bargain," returned the
lawyer with some contempt. "No one makes mosey out of newspapers in
these times. If I had money, I would be a deputy. With prudence there is
much to be earned in the Chambers, and petitioners know that they must
pay cash."

"It is certainly a career," assented the artist "But, as you say, it