riddu answered.

"Thank you! but I should expect you to poison me if I were to drink
with you, my friend," and the wagoner looked meaningly at Turiddu.

"Oh--well, suit yourself," Turiddu replied, nonchalantly. Then a
neighbour standing near Lola whispered:

"You had better leave here, Lola. Come home with me. I can foresee
trouble here." Lola took her advice and went out, with all the women
following her.

"Well, now that you have frightened away all the women by your
behaviour, maybe you have something to say to me privately," Turiddu
remarked, turning to Alfio.

"Nothing--except that I am going to kill you--this instant!"

"You think so? then we will embrace," Turiddu exclaimed, proposing the
custom of the place and throwing his arms about his enemy. When he did
so, Alfio bit Turiddu's ear, which, in Sicily, is a challenge to a
duel.

"Good! I guess we understand each other."

"Well, I own that I have done you wrong--and Santuzza wrong.
Altogether, I am a bad fellow; but if you are going to kill me, I must
bid my mother good-bye, and also give Santuzza into her care. After
all, I have some grace left, whether you think so or not," Turiddu
cried, and then he called his mother out, while Alfio went away with
the understanding that Turiddu should immediately follow and get the
fight over.

"Mama," Turiddu then said to old Lucia when she hobbled out, "that
wine of ours is certainly very exciting. I am going out to walk it
off, and I want your blessing before I go." He tried to keep up a
cheerful front that he might not frighten his old mother. At least he
had the grace to behave himself fairly well, now that the end had
come.

"If I shouldn't come back----"

"What can you mean, my son?" the old woman whispered, trembling with
fear.

"Nothing, nothing, except that even before I go to walk, I want your
promise to take Santuzza to live with you. Now that is all! I'm off.
Good-bye, God bless you, mother. I love you very much." Before she
hardly knew what had happened, Turiddu was off and away. She ran to
the side of the square and called after him, but he did not return.
Instead, Santuzza ran in.

"Oh, Mama Lucia," she cried, throwing her arms about her.

Then the people who had met Alfio and Turiddu on their way to their
encounter began to rush in. Everybody was wildly excited. Both men
were village favourites in their way. A great noise of rioting was
heard and some one shrieked in the distance.

"Oh,