Page:Romance & Reality 3.pdf/222

220 His opinions were now altered, because he acted upon them. His conversations changed with his connexions; and it was impossible to find an individual less liberal in word or action than the secret and trusted agent of the Carbonari. Moore says, that love In this case business was of the same opinion as love. Pachetti's word was worth a thousand piastres any day; and his cassino on the coast had a very different appearance from his small dark house on the Strada. The feeling which of yore made the old warrior desire to die in harness, is the same which chains the citizen to his counter. Early habit taking a less picturesque form, Pachetti always spent festivals and Sundays at his cassino, but certainly those days did seem intolerably long. Honest, if not liberal—a sure and prudent agent—his employers and himself had been mutually satisfied. A secret always carries its own importance; and while Pachetti remonstrated on their imprudence, and complained of the danger, his dealings with the Carbonari were, in reality, the enjoyment of his life.