I had, naturally, a peculiarly soft voice and a rapid, yet clear, enunciation, and it was my habit, as it is the habit of almost every Italian, to accompany my words with the expressive pantomime of gesture.

I took myself in training as an actor studies for a particular part.

I cultivated a harsh accent, and spoke with deliberation and coldness--occasionally with a sort of sarcastic brusquerie, carefully avoiding the least movement of hands or head during converse.

This was exceedingly difficult of attainment to me, and took me an infinite deal of time and trouble; but I had for my model a middle-aged Englishman who was staying in the same hotel as myself, and whose starched stolidity never relaxed for a single instant.

He was a human iceberg--perfectly respectable, with that air of decent gloom about him which is generally worn by all the sons of Britain while sojourning in a foreign clime.