A Woman of Resources

The Roman correspondent of the Catholic Mirror, in his letter of the 12th ult., tells the following anecdote:

A few days ago, in company with a friend, while taking a quiet walk around the Colosseum, I was startled on being asked, in the English vernacular, for a coin. "Will your honor give a poor woman a small coin, and God's blessing on you," said the good lady, her voice plainly indicating her native country. Anxious, for the moment, to preserve the incognito, and to test the native genius of our petitioner, we replied in French, when, at once, she retorted in the same language. We then had recourse to a sentence in Italian, but she spoke back in much better Italian than we could command. At last, in despair, we took shelter in Latin. "Begorra, your honor has me there. I don't spake Latin."

After throwing off the mask of words in which we vainly sought to conceal our national identity, we learned from the venerable lady that, many years ago, she left Ireland, married, first, a German, whom she survived; again married an Italian, and became a widow a second time. She instinctively distinguishes an English-speaking gentleman from a German, or a Spaniard, or an Italian, and adapts her speech to the nationality of the person she addresses.