The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-01-06
THE DAILY STAR
lHI PROFESSORS DECLARATION.
CHAPTER I.


ceum of remote provincial town, h
now filled University chair in the cit,
that he preferred to all Others. Whicl
that was need not be particularized il
these pages. A big river ran through it
mountains girdled it about, but these ar,
advantages shared by several of Italy's
one-and-twenty university towns.
when | add that the Professors stipend
more than suficed for his modest wants
with a fair margin for his one luxury
books that he had chanced upon q
model housekeeper, who made his money
go much farther than it had ever gone
. before; and that in the two years during
which he had filled his present post he
had not once fallen out with his col
leagues-not even with the philologists,
according to Metternich the most quar-
relsome Of men-it may seem strange to
characterize his contentment as singular.
But if you reckon on your fingers the
number of your friends whose fulfilled
ambition fulfill their hopes, think you
will agree with me that Professor Mar
cotti was rather an exceptional man.
Most of his colleagues grumbled at the
monotony Of the city; our hero liked it.
1t panied him to hear contemptuous
animadversions on its grass-grown
squares, quiet streets, and general life
lessness. Had it not good public
Libraries, excellent book-shops, was it not
well lighted, well paved, full of noble
buildings that were delight to the eye2
What better residence for a studious
mani Rome! Naplesl Well, he did
not deny that they were delightful for q
short term; but to live in that turmoil
be hustled by hurryihg crowds when you
wished to breathe the air or think out
some difficulty you had met with in your
days work, no, it would be impossible.
The fact was that some twenty years
OF patient labor and more patient econ
omy had drilled our Professor into very
regular habits, habits not easily to be
abandoned by man on the wrong side
OF forty. Whatever enterprise or dash
might be in him was now all concentra-
ted in his work. Natural science afforded
him as much excitement as his nature
required. Outside the walls of his study
and labratory he demanded but little
quiet rest, moderate food, and modi-
cum of fresh air. His life went as by
clockwork, SO many hours at the desk, |
so many in the classroom, two micro
scopic walks to the tobacconist's where
he bought his seven-centimes cigar, one
to the Cafe, where he drank his "demi- |
tasse" and glanced at the news of the |
day. Regularly once a week he dined
at restaurant frequented by his fellow
professors; on other days he ate the meal
at home, listening the while with half
an ear to the mild gossip his housekeeper,
Assunta, served up with her dishes.
On summer evenings it was ample re-
axation to stroll up and down the broad
flags by the river and chat with his col
leagues on university topics; and then,
when the weariseme July examinations
were over the Professor would pack his
valise and start upon some quiet little
holiday tonr, with the pleasant certitude
that on his return in the autumn he
would find all things as before, his friends
walking up and down the same stretch
of pavement, and discussing the same
subjects, the same grievances as before.
One change, and one only, did he desire,
namely,a fresh Minister of Public In
struction, more favorable to the interests
of the University in which our hero's I
heart was bound up. He never went to
the theater, for that would have inter- I
fered with his nightly studies; but as he g
respected his digestion, neither did he
return to his desk before ten o'clock. I
During the winter months, regularly at
half-past seven every Tuesday evening,
he appeared in the salon Of an elderly S
Marchesa who dabbled in literature, s
aesthetics, and the drama, and liked to be c
surrounded by professors of all kinds. c
Every Saturday evening at the same 8
hour he joined the circle of political !
Countess in whose drawing-room the af- t
fairs of the world were sedulously dis r
cussed. And precisely at a quarter to
ten he made his parting salutation to c
Marchesa or Countess and set out for his o
own abode, always by the same streets :
and crossing the road at the same point. s
He was as kind and unselfsh as it was h
possible for man to be who was with v
out family ties and never obliged to con- II
suit any but his own convenience More Z
than one needy student had been succored
by his purse; he was generous in the n
matter of book-lending, though it cost +
him a pang to see gaps in his orderly
book-shelves; but his sympathies were
necessarily fossilised by his mode of life, t
and any disturbance Of his timetable r
was downright afflction to him. '
So, when Signora Assunta entered her r
masters study one November afternoon n
in answer to his seldom-r,sed bell, she
was no little astonished to be told to put h
back the dinner till six clock, as he had t
to 60 out at once. The Professor was t
by his writing-table with an II
open letter in his hand, and looked 50 1
disturbed that his housekeeper anxiously /
inquired if he had received bad news. v
For some moments he gazed at her va e
cantly through his black-rimmed specta- II
cles; evidently his thoughts were else
where, and her words pierced slowly r
through his rind of absorption.
"Bad news" he echoed at last. "No! ]