With an intermission for luncheon, they worked until nearly four o’clock in the afternoon, when Rocjean proposed taking a walk out to the Villa Borghese, and as they returned, on their way to dinner, they could stop in at the studio, and see that the donkey and goat were driven out to the stable, where they could be kept until wanted again.  Accordingly, both artists walked out to the villa, and had only taken a short turn toward the Casino, when they met a New-York friend of theirs, alone in a carriage, taking a ride.  He ordered the driver to stop, and begged them both to get in with him, and after passing through the villa and around the Pincio, to come and take dinner with him sociably in his rooms in the Via Frattina.  They accepted; and at ten o’clock that night, while going home in a very happy frame of mind, it suddenly occurred to Caper that his menagerie ought to have been attended to.  Rocjean consoled him with the reflection that, having the key in his pocket, they could not possibly get out; so the former thought no more about it.

Early in the morning, having met as usual at the Greco, and breakfasted together, Caper and Rocjean walked round to the former’s studio.  Before they entered the door of the building, they noticed a small assembly of old women surrounding the porter, and as Caper entered the passage-way, they poured a broadside into him.

’Accidente, Signore, nobody around here has been able to sleep a wink all night long. Santa Maria! such yells have come from your studio, such groans, such horrible noises, as if all the devils had broken loose.  We are going to the police; we are going to the gendarmeria; we are going to—­’

‘Go there—­and be hanged!’ shouted Caper, breaking through the crowd, and running up-stairs two steps at a time, he nearly walked into the lap of a tall female model, named Giacinta, dressed in Ciociara costume, who was calmly seated on the stair-case, glaring at another female model, named Nina, who stood leaning against the door of his studio.

‘Signor Giacomo, good morning!’ said Giacinta, ’didn’t you tell me to be here at nine o’clock?’

‘To be sure I did,’ replied he.

‘Then,’ continued she, ’what is that person there taking the bread out of my mouth for? Cospetto!’

‘Iddio giusto!’ cried Nina, ’hear her; she calls me, ME, a person!  I who have a watch and chain, and wear a hooped petticoat! I take the bread out of her mouth.  I a person!  I’m a lady, per Bacco!’

‘Tace!’ said Rocjean to Nina, ’or the Signore Giacomo will send you flying.  What do you want, Nina?’

’I only wanted to see if the Signore intended to paint the Lady Godeeva, that he told me about the other day.’

’Wait till I open the studio-door, and get out of this noise.  Those old women down below, and you young ones up here, are howling like a lot of hyenas.  Here, come in!’ ...  As Caper said this, he unlocked the studio-door and threw it open; the two models were close at his elbows, while Rocjean drew to one side to let them pass in.