Winter, or what the Neapolitans accept as winter, came on apace.

For some time past the air had been full of that mild chill and vaporous murkiness, which, not cold enough to be bracing, sensibly lowered the system and depressed the spirits.

The careless and jovial temperament of the people, however, was never much affected by the change of seasons--they drank more hot coffee than usual, and kept their feet warm by dancing from midnight up to the small hours of the morning.

The cholera was a thing of the past--the cleansing of the city, the sanitary precautions, which had been so much talked about and recommended in order to prevent another outbreak in the coming year, were all forgotten and neglected, and the laughing populace tripped lightly over the graves of its dead hundreds as though they were odorous banks of flowers.

"Oggi! Oggi!" is their cry--to-day, to-day! Never mind what happened yesterday, or what will happen to-morrow--leave that to i signori Santi and la Signora Madonna! And after all there is a grain of reason in their folly, for many of the bitterest miseries of man grow out of a fatal habit of looking back or looking forward, and of never living actually in the full-faced present.