trino?"

"That is true. Good night and thank you very much for my holiday and for
all you have done for me."

"Prego, prego; I thank you for giving me the pleasure of your company."

"Not at all."

"But I assure you--"

"If you go on like this I shall begin to cry, and then I shall not sleep
at all, and that will be worse than sitting up to discuss the play. So
good night, finally."

"Good night, Buffo. You will forgive me if I do not see you off in the
morning; I do not want to get up at half-past five. I wish you Buon
viaggio. Give my love to papa and Gildo and my respectful compliments to
the sisters. Have you got your lump of lava and all your other goods?
That's right. Sleep well and do not dream of Rosina and the good young
man."

"Arrivederci."

TRAPANI

CHAPTER VIII
THE NASCITA

Once I was at Trapani in September, and observed in a small shop in a
back street some queer little dolls' heads made of wax. They seemed to
form a set, some women and some men, and there were hands of wax to
match. I did not think much about them, one cannot very well investigate
everything one notices in a Sicilian town, and, as I turned away, these
little heads were driven out of mine by Ignazio Giacalone, who was coming
down the street. He is a young avvocato whom I have known since he was a
student. He told me that he was going to be married next day, and
invited me to his wedding.

In the evening another friend of mine, also an avvocato, Alberto Scalisi,
came to the albergo to take his coffee and, as we all sat smoking and
talking, something was said about an article on the Nascita written by
him and recently published in _L'Amico_, a Trapanese Sunday newspaper. I
knew nothing about the Nascita, but I knew something about the avvocato
whose acquaintance I had made a few years previously at the house of my
friend Signor Decio D'Ali, with whom I had been dining. After dinner
many guests, including the avvocato Scalisi, came to the house to
rehearse a play they were preparing for a charity performance; they were
all amateurs, and I never saw amateurs act so well. The Signora Decio
D'Ali and the Avvocato Scalisi were the best; his was a comic part, and
he did it with so much natural humour that I was anxious to read his
article whatever the Nascita might be, as to which they gave me some
preliminary information. They reminded me of the Presepio, the
representation of the Nativita at Bethlehem, w