trial by my government, but I can't; and to tell you the truth, it was
not altogether the wish to see these inventions of yours that brought
me here to-day."

"Oh," said Don Ippolito, with a mortified air, "I am afraid that I have
wearied the Signor Console."

"Not at all, not at all," Ferris made haste to answer, with a frown at
his own awkwardness. "But your speaking English yesterday; ... perhaps
what I was thinking of is quite foreign to your tastes and
possibilities."... He hesitated with a look of perplexity, while Don
Ippolito stood before him in an attitude of expectation, pressing the
points of his fingers together, and looking curiously into his face.
"The case is this," resumed Ferris desperately. "There are two American
ladies, friends of mine, sojourning in Venice, who expect to be here
till midsummer. They are mother and daughter, and the young lady wants
to read and speak Italian with somebody a few hours each day. The
question is whether it is quite out of your way or not to give her
lessons of this kind. I ask it quite at a venture. I suppose no harm is
done, at any rate," and he looked at Don Ippolito with apologetic
perturbation.

"No," said the priest, "there is no harm. On the contrary, I am at this
moment in a position to consider it a great favor that you do me in
offering me this employment. I accept it with the greatest pleasure.
Oh!" he cried, breaking by a sudden impulse from the composure with
which he had begun to speak, "you don't know what you do for me; you
lift me out of despair. Before you came, I had reached one of those
passes that seem the last bound of endeavor. But you give me new life.
Now I can go on with my experiment. I can at test my gratitude by