Fancy, even if he has not a grain of exact knowledge concealed
about his person. It seems to me highly important that the
foundations of Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, or Spokane Falls
should be rooted in certainty; but Verona, Padua, and Venice--well,
in my opinion, they should be rooted in Byron and Ruskin and
Shakespeare.


III


CASA ROSA, May 18.

Such a fanfare of bells as greeted our ears on the morning of our
first awakening in Casa Rosa!

"Rise at once and dress quickly, Salemina!" I said. "Either an
heir has been born to the throne, or a foreign Crown Prince has
come to visit Venice, or perhaps a Papal Bull is loose in the
Piazza San Marco. Whatever it is, we must not miss it, as I am
keeping a diary."

But Peppina entered with a jug of hot water, and assured us that
there were no more bells than usual; so we lay drowsily in our
comfortable little beds, gazing at the frescoes on the ceiling.

One difficulty about the faithful study of Italian frescoes is that
they can never be properly viewed unless one is extended at full-
length on the flat of one's honourable back (as they might say in
Japan), a position not suitable in a public building.