"Tell me, how come you to have so pleasant a look, living only, as
you do, among the unfortunate?"

"Why, sir, you will attribute it to indifference to others'
sufferings; of a truth, I know not how it is; yet, I assure you, it
often gives me pain to see the prisoners weep. Truly, I sometimes
pretend to be merry to bring a smile upon their faces."

"A thought has just struck me, my friend, which I never had before;
it is, that a jailer may be made of very congenial clay."

"Well, the trade has nothing to do with that, sir. Beyond that huge
vault you see there, without the court-yard, is another court, and
other prisons, all prepared for women. They are, sir, women of a
certain class; yet are there some angels among them, as to a good
heart. And if you were in my place, sir--"

"I?" and I laughed out heartily.

Tirola was quite disconcerted, and said no more. Perhaps he meant
to imply that had I been a secondino, it would have been difficult
not to become attached to some one or other of these unfortunates.

He now inquired what I wished to take for breakfast, left me, and
soon returned with my coffee. I looked hard at him, with a sort of
malicious smile, as much as to say, "Would you carry me a bit of a
note to an unhappy friend--to my friend Piero?" {1} He understood
it, and answered with another: "No sir; and if you do not take heed
how you ask any of my comrades, they will betray you."