Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/189

174 “Within, the three pet dogs of my landlady, bereft of their walk, unable to employ their miserable legs and eyes, exercise themselves by a continual barking, which is answered by all the dogs in the neighbourhood. An urchin returning from the laundress, delighted with the symphony, lays down his white bundle in thc gutter, scats himself on the curb-stone, and attempts an imitation of the music of cats as a tribute to the concert.

“ The door-bell rings. 'Chiè ?' ('Who is it?') cries the handmaid. Enter a man poisoning me at once with the smell of the worst possible cigars, insisting I shall look upon frightful, ill-cut cameos and worse-designed mosaics, made by some friend of his. Man of ill odours and meanest smile! I am no countess to be fooled by you."

These passages give us some glimpses of our friend in the surroundings which at first gave her so much satisfaction, and whose growing discomforts were lightened for her by her native sense of humour.

In spite of this, however, " the dirt, the gloom, the desolation of Rome" affected her severely. Her appetite failed, and with it her strength, while nervous head. ache and ſever conspired to make the whole season appear, in review, "the most idle and most suffering" one of her life.

The most important public event of the winter in Rome seems to have been the inauguration of a new Council, with some show of popular election, said to have been on the whole satisfactory. As this was considered a decided stop in the direction of progress, preparations were made for its celebration by the representatives of other Italian States, and of various friendly nations. The Americans resident in Rome