“Not at all, but here everyone wears the cassock. I am the first scopatore (sweeper) of His Holiness the Pope.”
“I congratulate you on your appointment, but you mustn’t mind me laughing.”
“Laugh as much as you like. My wife and daughters laugh when I put on the cassock and bands, and I laugh myself, but here the dress gains one respect. Come and see us.”
“Where do you live?”
“Behind the Trinity of Monti; here’s my address.”
“I will come to-night.”
I went home delighted with this meeting, and determined to enjoy the evening with my Venetian boatman. I got my brother to come with me, and I told him how the Pope had received me.
The Abbe Winckelmann came in the afternoon and informed me that I was fortunate enough to be high in favour with his cardinal, and that the book I had sent him was very valuable; it was a rare work, and in much better condition than the Vatican copy.
“I am commissioned to pay you for it.”
“I have told his eminence that it was a present.”