I need
not trouble you to-day for money, I believe. I brought sufficient from
Florence for the present; we will wait till the exchange is more
favourable.
_Banker._ (_Heartily._) No matter; you can have it whenever you
please. I shall come this afternoon and put all in order for you.
_Mrs W._ Thank you. Good-morning. (_Shakes hands, and exit._)
In this manner, and through similar interruptions, much of the
banker's time is taken up, till near three o'clock, which is the
general dinner-hour at the baths. Many people are supplied with this
renovating meal from the Europa Hotel at the Ponte, which is presided
over by one of the most honest, obliging, indefatigable, and
enterprising landlords in existence. Not only has he the direction of
three hotels at the Ponte, two of them off-shoots from the parent
Europa, but he undertakes the herculean task of daily sending forth
thirty-six dinners to different families; the whole requiring a
combination of artistic resource and fertility of intellect that fully
justifies his right to the appellation bestowed on him by the
ex-duke--that of 'the Napoleon of inn-keepers.
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