Having thus spoken, I awaited the consequence with great anxiety.
Therese did not reply. Her head and her vast cap remained buried
in the fireplace; and nothing in her person, which I closely
watched, betrayed the least emotion. She poked some paper under the
wood, and blew up the fire. That was all!

Finally I saw her face again;--it was calm--so calm that it made
me vexed. "Surely," I thought to myself, "this old maid has no heart.
She lets me go away without saying so much as AH! Can the absence
of her old master really affect her so little?"

"Well, then go, Monsieur," she answered at last, "only be back here
by six o'clock! There is a dish for dinner to-day which will not
wait for anybody."



Naples, November 10, 1859.


"Co tra calle vive, magna, e lave a faccia."

I understand, my friend--for three centimes I can eat, drink, and
wash my face, all by means of one of those slices of watermelon
you display there on a little table. But Occidental prejudices
would prevent me from enjoying that simple pleasure freely and
frankly. And how could I suck a watermelon? I have enough to do
mereley to keep on my feet in this crowd. What a luminous, noisy
night in the Strada di Porto! Mountains of fruit tower up in the
shops, illuminated by multicoloured lanterns. Upon charcoal furnaces