earnest little Bohemian musicians, piping in the centre of the Piazza,
could not altogether substantialize, and which constantly took
immateriality from the loveliness of its environment. In the winter the
scene was the most purely Venetian, and in my first winter, when I had
abandoned all thought of churches till spring, I settled down to steady
habits of idleness and coffee, and contemplated the life of the Piazza.

By all odds, the loungers at Florian's were the most interesting, because
they were the most various. People of all shades of politics met in the
dainty little saloons, though there were shades of division even there,
and they did not mingle. The Italians carefully assorted themselves in a
room furnished with green velvet, and the Austrians and the Austriacanti
frequented a red-velvet room. They were curious to look at, those
tranquil, indolent, Italian loafers, and I had an uncommon relish for
them. They seldom spoke together, and when they did speak, they burst from
silence into tumultuous controversy, and then lapsed again into perfect
silence. The elder among them sat with their hands carefully folded on the
heads of their sticks, gazing upon the ground, or else buried themselves
in the perusal of the French journals. The younger stood a good deal about
the doorways, and now and then passed a gentle, gentle jest with the
elegant waiters in black coats and white cravats, who hurried to and fro
with the orders, and called them out in strident tones to the accountant
at his little table; or sometimes these young idlers make a journey to the
room devoted to ladies and forbidden to smokers, looked long and
deliberately in upon its loveliness, and then returned to the bosom of
their taciturn companions. By chance I found them playing chess, but very
rarely. They were all well-dressed, handsome men, with beards carefully
cut, brilliant hats and boots, and conspicuously clean linen. I used to
wonder who they were, to what order of society they belonged, and whether
they, like my worthless self, had never any thing else but lounging at