A gondolier with a grudge can be a most dismal companion, for he talks to himself.

What he says, you cannot comprehend, for it is muttered and acutely foreign, but there is no doubt whatever that it is criticism detrimental to you, to some other equally objectionable person, or to the world at large.
The gondolier does not differ noticeably from any other man whose business it is to convey his fellow creatures from one spot to another.
The continual practice of assisting richer people than oneself to do things that oneself never does except for a livelihood would seem to engender a sardonic cast of mind.

Where the gondolier chiefly differs from, say, the London cabman, is in his gift of speech.

Cabmen can be caustic, sceptical, critical, censorious, but they do occasionally stop for breath.

There is no need for a gondolier ever to do so either by day or night; while when he is not talking he is accompanying every movement by a grunt.
It is this habit of talking and bickering which should make one very careful in choosing a lodging.