times with "_I miei rispetti, signori!_" We often see them in the
street, and at a distance from home, carrying mysterious bundles of
clothes; and at last we learn their vocation, which is one not known out
of Italian cities, I think. There the state is Uncle to the hard-pressed,
and instead of many pawnbrokers' shops there is one large municipal spout,
which is called the Monte di Pieta, where the needy pawn their goods. The
system is centuries old in Italy, but there are people who to this day
cannot summon courage to repair in person to the Mount of Pity, and, to
meet their wants, there has grown up a class of frowzy old women who
transact the business for them, and receive a small percentage for their
trouble. Our poor old Creatures were of this class, and as there were many
persons in impoverished, decaying Venice who had need of the succor they
procured, they made out to earn a living when both were well, and to eke
out existence by charity when one was ill. They were harmless neighbors,
and I believe they regretted our removal, when this took place, for they
used to sit down under an arcade opposite our new house, and spend the
duller intervals of trade in the contemplation of our windows.

The alarming spirit of nepotism which Giovanna developed at a later day
was, I fear, a growth from the encouragement we gave her charitable
disposition. But for several months it was merely from the fact of a boy
who came and whistled at the door until Giovanna opened it and reproved
him in the name of all the saints and powers of darkness, that we knew her
to be a mother; and we merely had her word for the existence of a husband,
who dealt in poultry. Without seeing Giovanna's husband, I nevertheless
knew him to be a man of downy exterior, wearing a canvas apron, thickly
crusted with the gore of fowls, who sat at the door of his shop and
plucked chickens forever, as with the tireless hand of Fate. I divined
that he lived in an atmosphere of scalded pullet; that three earthen cups
of clotted chickens' blood, placed upon his window-shelf, formed his idea