Once In A Cafe, Indeed, The Waiter Spoke To Me In
_Voi_ (You) Instead Of _Lei_ (Lordship), But The Neapolitans Often Do
This, And I Took It For A Friendly Effort To Put Me At My Ease In A
Strange Tongue With A More Accustomed Form.
We were trying to come
together on the kind of tea I wanted, but we failed, if I wanted it
strong, for I got it very weak and tepid.
I thought another day that it
would be stronger if I could get it brought hotter, but it was not, and
so I went no more to a place where I was liable to be called You instead
of Lordship and still get weak tea. I think this was a mistake of mine
and a loss, for at that cafe I saw some old-fashioned Italian types
drinking their black coffee at afternoon tea-time out of tumblers, and
others calling for pen and ink and writing letters, and ladies sweetly
asking for newspapers and reading them there; and I ought to have
continued coming to study them.
As to my conjectures of republican quality in the Romans, I had explicit
confirmation from a very intelligent Italian who said of the anomalous
social and political situation in Rome: "We Italians are naturally
republicans, and, if it were a question of any other reigning family, we
should have the republic. But we feel that we owe everything, the very
existence of the nation, to the house of Savoy, and we are loyal to it
in our gratitude.
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