id not take her, to make her his wife.

At last Ruggiero's tall figure appeared at the corner of the building
occupied by the coastguard station, and Bastianello immediately whistled
to him, giving a signal which had served the brothers since they were
children. Ruggiero started, turned his head and at once jumped into the
first boat he could lay hands on and pulled out alongside of his
brother.

"What is it?" he asked, letting his oars swing astern and laying hold on
the gunwale of the sail boat.

"About Teresina," answered Bastianello, taking his pipe from his mouth
and leaning towards his brother. "The son of the Son of the Fool was
swimming about here just now, and he hauled himself half aboard of me
and made faces. So I took the boat-hook to hit his fingers. And just
then he said to me, 'You have a beautiful pair of masters you and your
brother.' 'Why?' I asked, and I held the boat-hook ready. But I would
not have hurt the boy, because he is one of ours. So he told me that he
had just seen the Count up there in the garden of the hotel, trying to
kiss Teresina and offering her the gold, and I gave him half a cigar to
tell me the rest, because he would not, and made faces."

"May he die murdered!" exclaimed Ruggiero in a low voice, his face as
white as canvas.

"Wait a little, she is a good girl," answered Bastianello. "Teresina
threw the gold upon the ground and told the Count that he was an
infamous one and a liar. And then she went away. And I think the boy was
speaking the truth, because if it were a lie he would have spoken in
another way. For it was as easy to say that the Count kissed her as to
say that she would not let him, and he would have had the tobacco all
the same."

"May he die of a stroke!" muttered Ruggiero.

"But if I were in your place," said his brother calmly, "I would not do
anything to your padrone, because the girl is a good girl and gave him
the good answer, and as for him--" Bastianello shrugged his shoulders.

"May the sharks get his body and the devil get his soul!"

"That will be as it shall be," answered Bastianello. "And it is sure
that if God wills, the grampuses will eat him. But we do not know the
end. What I would say is this, that it is time you should speak to the
girl, because I see how white you get when we talk of her, and you are
consuming yourself and will have an illness, and though I could work for
both you and me, four arms are better than two, in summer as in w