but I know how to escape from people of the
corporal's class without being rude. I do not tell them I have another
engagement--that is not accepted because, as there is no time in Sicily,
punctuality is not recognised. If they have a proverb about it, it ought
to be, "Never put off till to-morrow what can be done the day after."
Nor do I say I have letters to write--that only provokes discussion:

"We thought you had come all this way to see us, and now you want to
write to England! You can talk to your English friends when you are at
home."

The course is to say one wants to sleep; one need not sleep, but no
objection is made, and one is usually allowed to depart at once. I have
not ventured to try this among my aristocratic friends, I doubt whether
it would work with them--besides, they disarm me by handing round
tea--but with corporals I employ it freely, and the knowledge that I can
always get away in a moment, even if I choose to remain, imparts to their
company a sense of freedom which I regret to say I have sometimes looked
for in vain in the educated drawing-rooms of the upper classes.

Before Filomena could begin her third piece I put my method in practice,
and for once it did not work quite smoothly, but the result was not
unsatisfactory.

Certainly I might sleep, said the corporal; but why go away? He hoped I
should dine with them. I might name my own hour and, as for sleeping,
there was the bed. Besides, his brother was coming to dinner:

"I want you to know my brother," said the corporal; "he is not like me."

"But, my dear Corporal, that is no recommendation," I replied. "Is he
also a coast-guard?"

"No. He is a dentist and very clever. He is an artificial dentist and
he had to work to learn his profession."

"Well, I suppose every dentist must learn his profession before he is
qualified. Dentists have to be made, they are not like poets. No one is
a natural born dentist."

"He had to work very hard. For a whole year he went to the hospital
every day four times a week."

"A clever dentist is a useful ally. I should like to know him. I might
want his help while I am here. What is his name?"

"Ah yes! That will interest you, he has an English name." Then he said
something that sounded like "He ran away" with the "r" and the "w" both
misty. As I did not recognise it, he wrote it down for me--"Ivanhoe."

"If you send him your teeth," continued the corporal, "he will repair
the