foreign employer is a fool, and sheds tears of rage and
mortification when his shallow devices for petty cheating are
discovered. And yet the servant, the beggar, the shopkeeper, and
the gentleman, are obliging sometimes almost to philanthropy, and
are ever ready to make themselves agreeable.

The Marchese di San Giacinto differed from his relations, the
Saracinesca princes, in that he was a full-blooded Italian, and
not the result of a cosmopolitan race-fusion, like so many of the
Roman nobles. He had not the Roman traditions, but, on the other
hand, he had his full share of the national characteristics,
together with something individual which lifted him above the
common herd in point of intelligence and in strength. He was a
noticeable man; all the more so because, with many pleasant
qualities, his countrymen rarely possess that physical and mental
combination of size, energy, and reserve, which inspires the sort
of respect enjoyed by imposing personages.

As he sat talking with the family after dinner on the evening of
his first introduction to the household what passed in his mind
and in the minds of his hosts can be easily stated.

Sant' Ilario, whose ideas were more clear upon most subjects than
those of his father or his wife, said to himself that he did not
like the man; that he suspected him, and believed he had some
hidden intention in coming to Rome; that it would be wise to watch
him perpetually and to question everything he did; but that he was
undeniably a relation, possessing every right to consideration,
and entitled to be treated with a certain familiarity; that,
finally and on the whole, he was a nuisance, to be borne with a