not want her; she had come, and I could not fling her out of the window; but they might conduct her through that or the door if they chose it.  She went before the commissary, but was obliged to return with that ‘becco ettico,’ as she called the poor man, who had a phthisic.  In a few days she ran away again.  After a precious piece of work, she fixed herself in my house, really and truly without my consent; but, owing to my indolence, and not being able to keep my countenance, for if I began in a rage, she always finished by making me laugh with some Venetian pantaloonery or another; and the gipsy knew this well enough, as well as her other powers of persuasion, and exerted them with the usual tact and success of all she-things; high and low, they are all alike for that.

“Madame Benzoni also took her under her protection, and then her head turned.  She was always in extremes, either crying or laughing, and so fierce when angered, that she was the terror of men, women, and children—­for she had the strength of an Amazon, with the temper of Medea.  She was a fine animal, but quite untameable. I was the only person that could at all keep her in any order, and when she saw me really angry (which they tell me is a savage sight), she subsided.  But she had a thousand fooleries.  In her fazziolo, the dress of the lower orders, she looked beautiful; but, alas! she longed for a hat and feathers; and all I could say or do (and I said much) could not prevent this travestie.  I put the first into the fire; but I got tired of burning them, before she did of buying them, so that she made herself a figure—­for they did not at all become her.

“Then she would have her gowns with a tail—­like a lady, forsooth; nothing would serve her but ‘l’abita colla coua,’ or cua, (that is the Venetian for ‘la cola,’ the tail or train,) and as her cursed pronunciation of the word made me laugh, there was an end of all controversy, and she dragged this diabolical tail after her every where.

“In the mean time, she beat the women and stopped my letters.  I found her one day pondering over one.  She used to try to find out by their shape whether they were feminine or no; and she used to lament her ignorance, and actually studied her alphabet, on purpose (as she declared) to open all letters addressed to me and read their contents.

“I must not omit to do justice to her housekeeping qualities.  After she came into my house as ‘donna di governo,’ the expenses were reduced to less than half, and every body did their duty better—­the apartments were kept in order, and every thing and every body else, except herself.

“That she had a sufficient regard for me in her wild way, I had many reasons to believe.  I will mention one.  In the autumn, one day, going to the Lido with my gondoliers, we were overtaken by a heavy squall, and the gondola put in peril—­hats blown away, boat