expired, his body being afterward carted away like so much rubbish
by the beccamorti.

The heat in the city was intense. The sky was a burning dome of
brilliancy, the bay was still as a glittering sheet of glass. A thin
column of smoke issuing from the crater of Vesuvius increased the
impression of an all-pervading, though imperceptible ring of fire,
that seemed to surround the place. No birds sung save in the late
evening, when the nightingales in my gardens broke out in a bubbling
torrent of melody, half joyous, half melancholy. Up on that wooded
height where I dwelt it was comparatively cool. I took all
precautions necessary to prevent the contagion from attacking our
household; In fact, I would have left the neighborhood altogether,
had I not known that hasty flight from an infected district often
carries with it the possibility of closer contact with the disease.
My wife, besides, was not nervous--I think very beautiful women
seldom are. Their superb vanity is an excellent shield to repel
pestilence; it does away with the principal element of danger--fear.
As for our Stella, a toddling mite of two years old, she was a
healthy child, for whom neither her mother nor myself entertained
the least anxiety.

Guido Ferrari came and stayed with us, and while the cholera, like a
sharp scythe put into a field of ripe corn, mowed down the dirt-
loving Neapolitans by hundreds, we three, with a small retinue of
servants, none of whom were ever permitted to visit the city, lived
on farinaceous food and distilled water, bathed regularly, rose and
retired early, and enjoyed the most perfect health.

Among her many other attractions my wife was gifted with a beautiful