Have you been a student ?" "A poor one, but I have a sufficient smattering to converse with ordinary company." "That is enough; but be very prudent, for Rome is the city in which smatterers unmask each other, and are always at war amongst themselves.

I hope you will take your letter to the cardinal, dressed like a modest abbe, and not in this elegant costume which is not likely to conjure fortune.

Adieu, let me see you to-morrow." Highly pleased with the welcome I had received at his hands, and with all he had said to me, I left his house and proceeded towards Campo-di-Fiore to deliver the letter of my cousin Antonio to Don Gaspar Vivaldi, who received me in his library, where I met two respectable-looking priests.
He gave me the most friendly welcome, asked for my address, and invited me to dinner for the next day.

He praised Father Georgi most highly, and, accompanying me as far as the stairs, he told me that he would give me on the morrow the amount his friend Don Antonio requested him to hand me.
More money which my generous cousin was bestowing on me! It is easy enough to give away when one possesses sufficient means to do it, but it is not every man who knows how to give.

I found the proceeding of Don Antonio more delicate even than generous; I could not refuse his present; it was my duty to prove my gratitude by accepting it.
Just after I had left M.Vivaldi's house I found myself face to face with Stephano, and this extraordinary original loaded me with friendly caresses.