I should say rather that they had a republican
simplicity of manner, and I liked this better in the shop people and
work people than the civility overflowing into servility which one finds
among the like folk, for instance, in England. I heard complaints from
foreigners that the old-time deference of the lower classes was gone,
but I did not miss it. Once in a cafe, indeed, the waiter spoke to me in
_Voi_ (you) instead of _Lei_ (lordship), but the Neapolitans often do
this, and I took it for a friendly effort to put me at my ease in a
strange tongue with a more accustomed form. We were trying to come
together on the kind of tea I wanted, but we failed, if I wanted it
strong, for I got it very weak and tepid. I thought another day that it
would be stronger if I could get it brought hotter, but it was not, and
so I went no more to a place where I was liable to be called You instead
of Lordship and still get weak tea. I think this was a mistake of mine
and a loss, for at that cafe I saw some old-fashioned Italian types
drinking their black coffee at afternoon tea-time out of tumblers, and
others calling for pen and ink and writing letters, and ladies sweetly
asking for newspapers and reading them there; and I ought to have
continued coming to study them.
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