At that day, tea was known throughout southern Europe as an ingredient only for the apothecary's keeping; nor was it often to be found among his stores; and the _convives_ used, as a substitute, large draughts of the pleasant mountain liquors of the adjacent main, which produced an excitement scarcely greater, while it may be questioned if it did as much injury to the health.

The stranger, however, both ate and drank sparingly, for, while he affected to join cordially in the discourse and the business of _restoration_, he greatly desired to be at liberty to pursue his own designs.
Andrea Barrofaldi did not let so excellent an opportunity to show his acquirements to the podesta go by neglected.

He talked much of England, its history, its religion, government, laws, climate, and industry; making frequent appeals to the Capitano Smees for the truth of his opinions.

In most cases the parties agreed surprisingly, for the stranger started with a deliberate intention to assent to everything; but even this compliant temper had its embarrassments, since the vice-governatore so put his interrogatories as occasionally to give to acquiescence the appearance of dissent.

The other floundered through his difficulties tolerably well, notwithstanding; and so successful was he, in particular, in flattering Andrea's self-love by expressions of astonishment that a foreigner should understand his own country so well--better, indeed, in many respects, than he understood it himself--and that he should be so familiar with its habits, institutions, and geography, that, by the time the flask was emptied, the superior functionary whispered to his inferior, that the stranger manifested so much information and good sense, he should not be surprised if he turned out, in the long run, to be some secret agent of the British government, employed to make philosophical inquiries as to the trade and navigation of Italy, with a view to improve the business relations between the two countries.
"You are an admirer of nobility, and a devotee of aristocracy," added Andrea Barrofaldi, in pursuit of the subject then in hand; "if the truth were known, a scion of some Noble house yourself, Signor ?" "I ?--Peste!--I hate an aristocrat, Signor Vice-governatore, as I do the devil!" This was said just after the freest draught the stranger had taken, and with an unguarded warmth that he himself immediately regretted.
"This is extraordinary, in an Inglese! Ah--I see how it is--you are in the _opposizione_, and find it necessary to say this.