“I have thought of that,” rejoined Don Ippolito more patiently. “I can get a passport for France from the Austrian authorities here, and at Milan there must be ways in which I could change it for one from my own king”—it was by this title that patriotic Venetians of those days spoke of Victor Emmanuel—“that would carry me out of France into England.”
Ferris pondered a moment. “That is quite true,” he said. “Why hadn’t you thought of that when you first came to me?”
“I cannot tell. I didn’t know that I could even get a passport for France till the other day.”
Both were silent while the painter filled his pipe. “Well,” he said presently, “I’m very sorry. I’m afraid you’re dooming yourself to many bitter disappointments in going to America. What do you expect to do there?”
“Why, with my inventions”—
“I suppose,” interrupted the other, putting a lighted match to his pipe, “that a painter must be a very poor sort of American: his first thought is of coming to Italy. So I know very little directly about the fortunes of my inventive fellow-countrymen, or whether an inventor has any prospect of making a living. But once when I was at Washington I went into the Patent Office, where the models of the inventions are deposited; the building is about as large as the Ducal Palace, and it is full of them. The people there told me nothing was commoner than for the same invention to be repeated over and over again by different inventors. Some few succeed, and then they have lawsuits with the infringers of their patents; some sell out their inventions for a trifle to companies that have capital, and that grow rich upon them; the great number can never bring their ideas to the public notice at all. You can judge for yourself what your chances would be. You have asked me why you should not go to America. Well, because I think you would starve there.”
“I am used to that,” said Don Ippolito; “and besides, until some of my inventions became known, I could give lessons in Italian.”
“Oh, bravo!” said Ferris, “you prefer instant death, then?”
“But madamigella seemed to believe that my success as an inventor would be assured, there.”
Ferris gave a very ironical laugh. “Miss Vervain must have been about twelve years old when she left America. Even a lady’s knowledge of business, at that age, is limited. When did you talk with her about it? You had not spoken of it to me, of late, and I thought you were more contented than you used to be.”