The two young men looked at each other with an air of stupefaction.
"Well," said Franz to Albert, "do you know what is the best thing we can do? It is to pass the Carnival at Venice; there we are sure of obtaining gondolas, if we cannot have carriages."
"Ah! the devil! no," cried Albert; "I came to Eome to see the Carnival, and I will, though I see it on stilts."
"Bravo! an excellent idea! We will disguise ourselves as monster pulchinellos or shepherds of the Landes, and we shall have complete success."
"Do your excellencies still wish for a carriage from now to Sunday morning?"
"Parlleu!" said Albert, "do you think we are going to run about on foot in the streets of Rome, like lawyers' clerks?"
"I hasten to comply with your excellencies' wishes; only, I tell you beforehand, the carriage will cost you six piastres a day."
"And, as I am not a millionaire, like the gentleman in the next apartments," said Franz, "I warn you, that as I have been four times before at Rome, I know the prices of all the carriages; we will give you twelve piastres for to-day, to-morrow, and the day after, and then you will make a good profit."
"But, excellency" said Pastrini, still striving to gain his point.
"Now go," returned Franz, "or I shall go myself and bargain with your affletatore, who is mine also; he is an old friend of mine, who has plundered me pretty well already, and, in the hope of making more out of me, he will take a less price than the one I offer you. You will lose the preference, and that will be your fault."
"Do not give yourselves the trouble, excellency," returned Maitre Pastrini, with that smile of the Italian speculator who avows himself defeated; "I will do all I can, and I hope you will be satisfied."
"And now we understand each other."
"When do you wish the carriage to be here?"
"In an hour."
"In an hour it will be at the door."
An hour after, the vehicle was at the door. It was a hack convey ance which was elevated to the rank of a private carriage in honor of the occasion; but, in spite of its humble exterior, the young men would have thought themselves happy to have secured it for the last three days of the Carnival.
"Excellency," cried the cicerone, seeing Franz approach the window, "shall I bring the carriage nearer to the palace?"
Accustomed as Franz was to the Italian phraseology, his first impulse was to look round him, but these words were addressed to him. Franz
