the artist looked so cheerful, patient, and quiet, doubtless amidst huge
discouragement. He is probably stubborn of purpose, and is the sort of
man who will improve with every year of his life. We could not speak his
language, and were therefore spared the difficulty of paying him any
compliments; but Miss Shepard said a few kind words to him in German.
and seemed quite to win his heart, insomuch that he followed her with
bows and smiles a long way down the staircase. It is a terrible
business, this looking at pictures, whether good or bad, in the presence
of the artists who paint them; it is as great a bore as to hear a poet
read his own verses. It takes away all my pleasure in seeing the
pictures, and even remakes me question the genuineness of the impressions
which I receive from them.

After this latter visit Mr. Akers conducted us to the shop of the
jeweller Castellani, who is a great reproducer of ornaments in the old
Roman and Etruscan fashion. These antique styles are very fashionable
just now, and some of the specimens he showed us were certainly very
beautiful, though I doubt whether their quaintness and old-time
curiousness, as patterns of gewgaws dug out of immemorial tombs, be not
their greatest charm. We saw the toilet-case of an Etruscan lady,--that
is to say, a modern imitation of it,--with her rings for summer and
winter, and for every day of the week, and for thumb and fingers; her
ivory comb; her bracelets; and more knick-knacks than I can half
remember. Splendid things of our own time were likewise shown us; a
necklace of diamonds worth eighteen thousand scudi, together with
emeralds and opals and great pearls. Finally we came away, and my wife
and Miss Shepard were taken up by the Misses Weston, who drove with them
to visit the Villa Albani. During their drive my wife happened to raise
her arm, and Miss Shepard espied a little Greek cross of gold which had
attached itself to the lace of her sleeve. . . . . Pray heaven the