he pleased.  We went to a tailor who took my measure, and who brought me on the following day everything necessary to the toilet of the most elegant abbe.  Don Antonio called on me, and remained to dine with Don Gennaro, after which he took me and my friend Paul to the duchess.  This lady, according to the Neapolitan fashion, called me thou in her very first compliment of welcome.  Her daughter, then only ten or twelve years old, was very handsome, and a few years later became Duchess de Matalona.  The duchess presented me with a snuff-box in pale tortoise-shell with arabesque incrustations in gold, and she invited us to dine with her on the morrow, promising to take us after dinner to the Convent of St. Claire to pay a visit to the new nun.

As we came out of the palace of the duchess, I left my friends and went alone to Panagiotti’s to claim the barrel of muscatel wine.  The manager was kind enough to have the barrel divided into two smaller casks of equal capacity, and I sent one to Don Antonio, and the other to Don Gennaro.  As I was leaving the shop I met the worthy Panagiotti, who was glad to see me.  Was I to blush at the sight of the good man I had at first deceived?  No, for in his opinion I had acted very nobly towards him.

Don Gennaro, as I returned home, managed to thank me for my handsome present without laughing, and the next day Don Antonio, to make up for the muscatel wine I had sent him, offered me a gold-headed cane, worth at least fifteen ounces, and his tailor brought me a travelling suit and a blue great coat, with the buttonholes in gold lace.  I therefore found myself splendidly equipped.

At the Duchess de Bovino’s dinner I made the acquaintance of the wisest and most learned man in Naples, the illustrious Don Lelio Caraffa, who belonged to the ducal family of Matalona, and whom King Carlos honoured with the title of friend.

I spent two delightful hours in the convent parlour, coping successfully with the curiosity of all the nuns who were pressing against the grating.  Had destiny allowed me to remain in Naples my fortune would have been made; but, although I had no fixed plan, the voice of fate summoned me to Rome, and therefore I resisted all the entreaties of my cousin Antonio to accept the honourable position of tutor in several houses of the highest order.

Don Antonio gave a splendid dinner in my honour, but he was annoyed and angry because he saw that his wife looked daggers at her new cousin.  I thought that, more than once, she cast a glance at my new costume, and then whispered to the guest next to her.  Very likely she knew what had taken place.  There are some positions in life to which I could never be reconciled.  If, in the most brilliant circle, there is one person who affects to stare at me I lose all presence of mind.  Self-dignity feels outraged, my wit dies away, and I play the part of a dolt.  It is a weakness on my part, but a weakness I cannot overcome.